District cooling to earn points for buildings

Dubai: District cooling (DC) is being looked upon as a point-earner for green buildings in Dubai, however, proper regulations need to be adhered to, said an industry expert.

By applying such systems in future buildings they can have a good chance of scoring highly on the efficiency scale, said George Berbari, CEO of DC PRO Engineering, the company setting up DC for developments such as Dubai Investment Park, Dubai Pearl, Dubailand, Dubai Festival City and Danet Abu Dhabi amongst others.

Standards ratings issued to buildings for their savings on electricity and water, or use of materials and location currently allocate a maximum of 10 points of the total 69 possible in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for cooling.

According to Berbari when a building is connected to DC it can earn an additional three points however, the point measures need clarification, improvement and correction when applied in the UAE.

"The LEED standard addresses the savings from the energy perspective when it comes to a building. However, a building with its water-cooled chillers [made up] of treated sewage effluent or grey water...will achieve up to three credit points for water conservation," said Berbari.

"However, imposing (DC) in certain areas in Dubai without regulating the industry was a wrong approach. When DC was sold based on its own merit, the end-user was satisfied and the DC Provider had to give a world class service. When the DC service was imposed, the DC provider became complacent and was rigid in imposing unfair conditions on the end-users," said Berbari on the current industry.

Government subsidies and regulations would help in making DC more widely used and fasten the pace in which Dubai can have green buildings as education alone is not an effective tool, said Berbari.

"The industry is still young and immature. It requires government support, as the latest electric slab rate penalise all central air conditioning system and favours inefficient ducted splits and window air conditioning.

"Green buildings are often linked to higher cost. However, 80 per cent of the green buildings' measures reduce construction cost. The 20 per cent balance includes grey water recycling, photovoltaic power generation, solar day lighting harvesting via fiber optics or solar air-conditioning require government incentives as it is better to support these technologies in lieu of subsidising electric power as it is currently happen," he said.

According to Berbari something as simple as insulating a home was only widely implemented once codes and regulations were in place despite the fact it's able to achieve more than 30 per cent energy savings.

What is it?: Distribution of energy

A district cooling system distributes thermal energy in the form of chilled water from a central plant to multiple buildings through a network of underground pipes, which eliminates the need for separate systems in individual buildings.