Emirates District Cooling plans to increase capacity

18 August 2015

Increased construction is leading to more demand for district cooling services

  • Emirates District Cooling recorded 30 per cent increase in peak consumption in the first half of 2015
  • Company plans to increase capacity for Dubai Investments Park to 250,000 tonnes of refri

Dubai-based Emirates District Cooling (Emicool) is planning to increase its plant capacity to 500,000 tonnes of refrigeration (TR) by 2020 as increased construction is leading to more demand for district cooling services across the region.

The company recorded a 30 per cent increase in peak consumption in the first half of 2015, with customers using more than 90 million TR an hour during the period. 

Emicool provides district cooling to Dubai Investments Park’s (DIP’s) businesses and households with operating capacity of 115,000 TR from its plant in DIP. It is also eyeing an increase in its capacity for DIP alone to touch 250,000 TR. This is in line with DIP plans to build more than 1,150 residential units in the coming years.

Currently, water is cooled at the Emicool plant within DIP and then channelled to other buildings and sectors in the development, replacing individual air conditioning units with blanket coverage.

Apart from DIP, Emicool is currently offering district cooling services in locations such as Dubai Motor City, Dubai Sports City and Uptown Mirdif.

“The demand within DIP and across the UAE is on the rise amid burgeoning construction, and we are fast augmenting our capacity in line with this,” says Adib Moubadder, CEO of Emicool.

District cooling uses 40-50 per cent less energy than traditional air conditioning systems, which can account for 70 per cent of a building’s electricity bill. This frees up considerable amounts of energy to be used elsewhere.

Emicool’s plans include expansion of operations to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

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