Dewa holds back on enforcing green code

Dewa chief Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer

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Dewa will hold back on issuing a deadline to district cooling companies to comply with a directive that requires them to save energy through implementation of peak saving methods.

Decree No. 27, issued by the Executive Council of Dubai last year, prohibits companies from using desalinated water and requires the usage of thermal energy storage facilities in operations of new installations.

As an incentive to comply with the directive, the companies are being offered attractive tariffs. Yet despite these reduced tariffs, the economic downturn has rendered it unfeasible for many of the district cooling plants to implement such a scheme at present, due to the level of investment it would require.

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“It is difficult to force them during the financial crisis. They are commercial companies. They need to invest a certain sum. If that money is available for them ultimately, they will do it because they will have very attractive tariffs. But I think they have some problem with finances. I think it will take them one or two years in order to recover,” Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Dewa managing director and CEO, told Emirates Business.

However, once district cooling plants start to implement the scheme, Al Tayer said he expected the reduced tariffs to enable companies to recover the costs of installing the new systems within a few years.

“Definitely the tariff will be reduced. We don’t know yet how much, but there will be a study based on international practices, to be done by an independent body. They will give the recommendation. Maybe the companies can recover their cost within two to three years,” he said.

Additional reporting by Candice McGillivray