Dubai, UAE, 13 April 2018: Proper maintenance plays a vital role in ensuring that installed equipment continues to operate as designed and specified, yet, despite the best intentions, the lack of technical training in specialised equipment, such as cooling towers, could serve as a hindrance and negatively impact a system’s overall efficiency. This was the issue that Noor Sankary, Regional Sales Manager, Hamon Cooling Tower Company, spoke about, gleaning from the company’s experience in the region, adding that the gap in proper observance of maintenance protocols leads to loss of efficiency, legionella and other operational issues, such as early replacement of fills. “We and most of our reputed competitors develop state-of-the art products and hand it over to the client, without securing a maintenance contract for the cooling towers,” he said, “and some other company then takes on the maintenance. This company expertise might be good or not so good, but we strongly believe that it is in the best interest of the owner to have the manufacturer take care of the maintenance, as he will be assured of the best expertise.”

Sankary stressed that the company designs cooling towers in a way that the cooling tower will use the least amount of energy and conserve water. “If you do not maintain it properly,” he said, “that goes against our wish of maintaining the cooling tower with least power consumption and preserving water. We have our own maintenance team and we can certainly help in this regard.”

Weighing in, Talal Damerchi, General Manager, Hamon Cooling Tower Company, said that the answer may lie in a more collaborative approach involving all stakeholders: “Manufacturers’ councils exist in many countries, where manufactures provide an integrated approach to resolve issues and work with regulators to provide input on pending legislation,” he said, “We would also welcome and support a more collaborative approach between manufacturers and Facility Management (FM) companies so that we both share in the best way to maintain the equipment. That is not happening, currently, to the degree we would like.”

Damerchi said that the company believes FM companies can be a good ally in providing value-added services to building owners. “The FM companies have a much larger scope than the manufacturer in the maintenance and operation of the plant,” he said, “and it will be to everyone’s benefit if the FM companies started to cooperate with the manufacturers on the best way to maintain the equipment.”

Damerchi added that the company is very active in providing aftermarket solutions and is now cooperating with Dubai South to upgrade their plants, which have Hamon cooling towers. “We have also worked with Empower on the upgrade of the Palm and JLT plants,” he said. “We are currently bidding on several upgrades for plants and we intend to expand in the maintenance and repairs, upgrade, spare parts and maintenance contracts as we are fully capable of performing these services because of our presence in the country and having our own team here.”

Sankary stressed that upgrades should not be confused with replacement. “Replacement typically means replacing parts as much as possible,” he said, “upgrade, on the other hand, involves not only replacing parts with a better, more efficient, component; it goes much deeper into analysing the requirement of the plant currently versus the original requirement and to study the performance of the existing cooling tower to establish if it meets the current requirements of efficiency, environment, water consumption, water quality, water source, etc.” Sankary said that the company’s strategic offering is due to efforts to navigate the price-driven market by offering a value proposition. “We are not just going to maintain it as it is, we try to make improvements, so their operating cost would go down. By using this approach, we hope we can become a partner rather than just a supplier.”

Hannah Jo Uy is Assistant Editor at Climate Control Middle East magazine. She may be contacted at hannah@cpi-industry.com