DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2020) Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation, Empower, the world’s largest district cooling services provider, announced the full-swing operation of the world's first unmanned district cooling plant at Jumeirah Village Circle in Dubai.
Unique of its kind, the 3rd generation district cooling plant serves the residents of 52 buildings with a total cooling capacity of 38,000 Refrigeration Tonnes, RT. Residents of 30 new buildings will be supplied with the cooling services, bringing the total number to 82 buildings, with a total cooling capacity of 49,000 RT by the end of 2020.
The announcement coincides with the launching of the activities of the Emirates Innovation week organised by the General Secretariat of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Dubai, during the period from 22nd to 28th February, under the theme "Innovates towards the next 50."
"The culture of innovation is deep-rooted in Empower's strategy since its inception as a fruit of the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai," Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower, said.
The new plant in JVC adopts the latest technologies in district cooling systems, including monitoring and adjusting the water flow to and from the cooling plant via the Thermal Energy Storage, TES, which helps to reduce the burden on the grid during peak hours. Moreover, the technology will be used to conserve natural resources.
The plant will be connected to Empower’s state-of-art Command Control Centre, CCC, which operates with the advanced SCADA system that provides the ability to read more than one million data entries of cooling towers, coolers, transformers and water supplies at Empower's 79 cooling plants.
The new plant, though the first of its kind in the world, will be the first in a series of unmanned operating plants that Empower is preparing to develop with the aim of achieving the greatest energy savings, as well as keeping pace with the growing demand for eco-friendly cooling services that are playing a crucial role in combating climate change. Empower has saved a total of 1,224 MW electricity worth AED 3.2 billion as of the end of 2019.
Empower's CEO said that besides improving the efficiency of the facilities performance, reducing the annual operating costs is one of the most important gains of adopting modern technologies in the district cooling sector.
Empower provides district cooling services to over 1,180 buildings and 120,000 customers, with a total cooling capacity of 1,530,000 RT.
