Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, announced a 60 million Dirhams’ worth of expansion at its district cooling plant in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). “This expansion is a result of the continuous demand for district cooling services, which is due to the growth of Empower’s projects across Dubai,” said Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower.
DIFC District Cooling Plant currently operates with a cooling capacity of 43,000 Tonnes of Refrigeration (TR). Empower will now be adding 6 eco-friendly EcoWise™ Centrifugal Chillers by Trane, with a capacity of 3,150 TR each along with the associated equipments to achieve the best overall efficiency and to be able to diverse the operations and meet the demand. The Ingersoll Rand EcoWise™ portfolio of products is designed to lower their environmental impact with next-generation, low-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants and high-efficiency operation. The new plant capacity after upgradation will reach to 62,000 TR which will constitute the DIFC plant to become one of the largest operational district cooling plants in the region.
“Empower targets all projects and areas in Dubai to promote eco-friendly cooling services that support Dubai’s strategy to transform the Emirate into a global hub for clean energy and green economy, and to strengthen its position to become the city with the lowest carbon footprint,” said Bin Shafar.
Bin Shafar noted that the expansion of the DIFC plant will contribute to enhancing energy efficiency in infrastructure and buildings. He emphasised that it will also provide high-quality cooling services to end-users.
Empower began its services in 2004 with 2 cooling plants, and reached 73, in 2017. It achieved an increase in the number of buildings using district cooling service, reaching 1,000 buildings by the end of 2017.
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.