Empower Launches ’24°C Cool’ Summer Campaign

Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, launched its summer campaign, ‘24°C Cool’ The three-month campaign seeks to achieve significant savings in electricity consumption in summer. This is part of Empower’s efforts to raise awareness on the importance of adopting sustainable practices and environmentally-friendly district cooling services.

The campaign includes tips and guidelines that contribute to reducing energy use during the summer. These include encouraging consumers to set their air conditioners at 24 degrees Celsius, in addition to other innovative methods to rationalise indoor temperature and reduce monthly costs through environmentally friendly consumption habits.

Empower ran a pre-summer preparation campaign of 8 Steps Summer to ensure accuracy, efficiency and reliability of the usage of district cooling during the peak season. The pre-summer campaign offered residents simple, yet effective tips to prepare their room to face the summer months. It also offered revolutionary methods to reduce heat build-up in homes and lower monthly expenses in an eco-friendly way.

The campaign targets Empower’s end-user customers, mainly in residential and commercial segments, which counts more than 85,000. The company will also gauge the change in consumption rates comparing to the same period last year in projects such as Jumeirah Group, Business Bay, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Jumeirah Lake Towers, and International Media Production Zone in order to assess the effectiveness of the campaign and responsiveness of its customers.

“Empower works on implementing sustainable development, according to the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to reduce electricity and water consumption by 30%, and make Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050,” said Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower.

“As the summer heat increases, energy consumption on air conditioners and refrigerators also increases. This causes additional pressure on the electricity network and grid. Also, the raising temperature increases the financial burden on consumers. Empower has adopted sustainable methods and special sustainable programmes to enhance energy efficiency, ratioanlised consumption, and preserving natural resources. In 2017, Empower had achieved total savings of 1,072 MW of electricity, in addition to AED 2.8 billion worth of savings in electricity,” added Bin Shafar.

In summer 2017, Empower achieved 5.4% savings in district cooling power consumption through its ‘Smile at 24 Degrees’ campaign. Empower introduced an online calculator on its website to helps its customers monitor and plan their district cooling consumption, helping them reduce consumption and achieve significant savings.

The company announced earlier that it has completed pre-summer preparation works at its district cooling plants and systems across Dubai to cater to the rapidly increasing demand during the hot months. System adjustments for the summer period included updates at Empower’s state-of-the-art Command Control Centre that effect precise temperature control at units, smart calculators for accurate metering, bulk meter maintenance and temperature sensor verification. The process also ensures smooth functioning of networks and machineries, and readiness of emergency-response measures and tools.

Empower currently operates over 1.34 Million RT, providing environmentally responsible district cooling services to large-scale real estate developments, such as Jumeirah Group, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai International Financial Centre, Business Bay, Dubai Healthcare City, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Palm Jumeirah, Discovery Gardens, Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai Design District and International Media Production Zone, among others.