Empower brings Burj Al Arab and Jumeriah Beach Hotel under District Cooling Service

Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (EMPOWER), the world's largest district cooling services provider, has announced the completion of the second phase of providing District Cooling Services to Jumeirah project area  including Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach Hotel  and The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management. The total capacity of the initial cooling energy is 10,000 RT delivered by the main cooling plant.

Empower and Jumeirah Group have signed the agreement for the three-phase project to provide Jumeirah project area in Dubai -- which includes many luxury landmarks including Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach Hotel and Madinat Jumeirah, Jumeriah Al Naseem Hotel and others with District Cooling Service.

This agreement is part of Empower's strategic plan to expand its network to all districts in Dubai, especially key landmarks such as governmental and tourist buildings and residential areas. The last of these landmarks were Emirates towers and Juma Al Majid on Sheikh Zayed road. The plan is part of Empower's vision to replace all the conventional cooling systems with District Cooling Services to get significant progress toward UAE Energy Strategy 2050, which aims to preserve the environment and achieve sustainable development in all fields including tourism and hospitality.

In the first phase of the project, the District Cooling Service was delivered to " Jumeriah Al Naseem Hotel " in the first quarter of 2016, whereas the third phase will deliver the service to Madinat Jumeirah 1, 2, 3 in 2018, after building the permanent district cooling plant to serve the entire area.

HE Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower, said: “We are happy to complete the second phase of the project, which is the corner stone of providing the service to Jumeirah project area fully. We were aware of the strategic importance of the facilities of this phase of the project. From the beginning, we took the responsibility to complete this phase and the whole project, which is going to be a quantum leap for Empower projects in Dubai. Our success in this project will enhance the trust in the District Cooling Service in Dubai and all over the world.

HE Bin Shafar continued: “This project has some special technical features, such as the need to build a cooling system for each building, replace the conventional cooling systems with Empower district cooling system without halting the service at all, building chilled water network across busy roads, and building a cooling plant in the middle of luxurious residential and touristic site. All these challenges were addressed with total accuracy and professionalism. We completed this phase of the project with zero downtime of services, and with the support of advanced technologies such as Non-Destructive Road Crossing (NDRC)”

Empower and Jumeriah Group teams put a lot of time and effort to execute the project as per the schedule. Team worked on the engineering side to transfer the cooling service from conventional systems to Empower plant without interruption to service, and without compromising on the service efficiency of these high-profile hospitality properties.

The work of building main district cooling plant was finished by the third quarter of 2016, to meet the schedule of commissioning which was set for January 2017. The entire schedule was prepared very carefully after detailed study of various scenarios that include risk management, and giving special significance to the high-profile aspects of the project.

“I believe this project is a turning point for the District Cooling Service in Dubai, which will further enhance the trust on DC systems and attract more attention towards retrofitting conventional cooling systems with district cooling, thus ultimately helping to push towards the sustainable development and to reduce energy consumption,” he added.

Empower currently operates more than 1.2 Million RT, providing environmentally responsible district cooling services to large-scale real estate developments such as Jumeirah Group, Business Bay, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai International Financial Centre, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Ibn Battuta Mall, Discovery Gardens, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai World trade Centre Residences, Dubai Design District, among others.