Keeping the industry regular

A recent conference raised the fascinating contention that the district cooling industry is too important to be left to market forces alone, and that intervention and regulation are sorely needed.

Indeed, one view was that the current direction of the industry is being determined by the marketing departments of the major players, who have business imperatives at heart, as opposed to the best interests of the industry itself. Which raised the equally important issue: can what is best for the industry and the major players be resolved at all?

“Everyone is afraid of the spectre of regulation. We want district cooling, and district cooling needs the government in order to be optimally effective. We must work together in going forward and exploiting this situation to our mutual advantage.

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What is good for the company must translate into being good for the country. Regulation is about balance, and not complete control of the industry,” said Dominic McPolin, chief planning officer at the Central Planning Office of the Bahrain Ministry of Works.

Of course, regulation also means that the government has to come to the party, particularly DEWA, which urgently has to introduce differential tariffs in order to make thermal storage viable and thereby realise the full ‘green’ potential of district cooling.

Speaking at the same conference, DEWA MD and CEO Saeed Al Tayer skirted such potentially contentious issues by merely reiterating the provisions of Decree 27 issued by Sheikh Mahommed in September 2008. Yes, Decree 27 is full of noble intentions, but DEWA will have to engage proactively with the district cooling industry in order to turn this vision into a tangible reality.

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