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It is clear that developments such ELIPS will have a significant impact on the district cooling industry by helping it contain costs and thereby provide a more cost-effective service. Other good news for the industry is DEWA’s announcement it will introduce smart metering. “Commissioning will be within six months,” DEWA CEO and MD Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer said in June.
Smart metering devices provide utilities and end users with more reliable information about consumption, which means consumers will be able to track their water and power consumption, and conversely help reduce this, as the GCC’s per capita consumption is one of the highest in the world. “We are now waiting for district cooling providers to modify their plants with thermal storage to increase their energy efficiency,” said Al Tayer.
IMEC Electro Mechanical Engineering executive director Aslan Al-Barazi confirms that ice thermal storage can help control commercial cooling costs. The technology is gaining popularity due to new DEWA legislation requiring district cooling providers to use 20% thermal energy storage from their total project load capacity (the options being either water or ice thermal storage).
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“There are many other benefits in using ice thermal storage. These include the advantages of peak design cost assessment, energy and space savings and emergency cooling in case of power failure, as well as taking advantage of day/night tariffs when these eventually come into play,” said Al-Barazi.
IMEC is the exclusive representative for Fafco SA from Switzerland, which manufactures an ice storage system using static tanks to make ice at night by means of the charging process of an ice chiller. It then discharges the cooling load through the ice tank during the high on-peak rate period in the daytime. The system also allows project engineers to achieve colder chilled water supply temperatures for special types of project applications.
“Fafco heat exchangers, situated on top of the tank, are easy to maintain and deliver maximum thermal performance with minimum glycol content,” said Al-Barazi. Ice thermal storage is well-proven in district cooling applications in Europe and the US, which means the UAE has access to a vast pool of international data and experience in this regard.
Despite the problems it is facing at present, district cooling still has a long-term future. At the International District Energy Association’s 2009 District Energy Space Awards, in the ‘Beyond North America’ category, Qatar Cool won gold (number of buildings) and silver (total building area). In 2009 the district cooling service provider contracted 44 new buildings, serving 11 million square feet.
Meanwhile Dohaland’s signature Mushrei-reb project has gained momentum with the developer beginning work on the district cooling plant in Phase 1A. And elsewhere, district cooling is also making an impact: Denmark has just inaugurated its first pilot district cooling system as a first step in an ambitious carbon emissions reduction strategy, while Malaysia is investing US$16.9 million in a massive district cooling system to serve Cyberjaya near Kuala Lumpur.
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