The National District Cooling Company, also known as Tabreed, is buying cooling plants in Masdar City and will explore the development of large-scale cooling plants in Sharjah via a joint venture with environmental management company Bee'ah.
The company is also consolidating a number of service offerings to set up a new entity, Tabreed Energy Services, offering consultancy services, as well as operation and maintence services for cooling plants.
The company said in a series of announcements at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week that the plants being acquired in Masdar City have a total capacity of 69,000 refrigeration tons, which is enough to provide cooling to more than 2.7 million square metres of property. It has also acquired two deep geothermal wells within Masdar City that are part of a research and development initiative on cooling.
The partnership with Bee'ah will develop potential district cooling plant projects in the emirate to provide a more environmentally-friendly way of cooling neighbourhoods. More traditional space cooling methods can account for up to 70 per cent of electricity consumption during peak periods in hotter countries like the UAE, but district cooling can reduce the amount of energy used to cool buildings by 60 to 80 per cent, according to Tabreed.
"The UAE faces extreme weather conditions, especially during summer, but through new district cooling projects, we hope to tackle this issue through more energy-efficient measures,” said Bee'ah group chief executive Khaled al Huraimel.
Tabreed's new energy services arm, meanwhile, will advise building owners on optimising energy use, particularly for cooling systems.
“Tabreed Energy Services strengthens our existing district cooling business by capturing further operational synergies and enabling our delivery of fully-integrated cooling solutions,” said the company's chief executive, Bader Al Lamki.
Tabreed operates 79 district cooling plants through the region, providing 1.16 million refrigeration tons to infrastructure projects such as Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Metro and the Jabal Omar development in the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia.
Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Yas Water Park, Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island, Bahrain Financial Market in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Jabal Omar Development in the Holy City of Mecca, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
