World's First Unmanned District Cooling Plant Will Be Serving 82 Buildings In Jumeirah Village
Empower: Adopting the latest technologies and systems
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 Tons (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 Refrigeration Tons (RT) by the end of 2020.
The announcement of this unique global achievement coincides with the launching of the activities of the Emirates Innovation week organized by the General Secretariat of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Dubai, during the period from 22 to 28 February, under the theme "Innovates towards the next 50."
Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower, said: "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.
"Empower's adoption and continuous development of innovative solutions and technologies in the performance of its tasks, is in line with the vision of Dubai's leadership aiming at innovating tools and means to invest opportunities and create a better future for future generations", he added.
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) technology, which helps reducing the burden on the grid during peak hours. Moreover, the Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE) technology will be used to conserve the natural resources.
The plant will be connected to Empower’s state-of-art Command Control Center (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 Refrigeration Tons (RT). Empower provides its environmentally friendly district cooling services to many landmark projects in Dubai, including Dubai Waterfront, Blue Waters, 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 and many more.
