Emirates District Cooling Company (EMICOOL), a joint venture between Dubai Investments – a leading investment company listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Actis - a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, has become the first district cooling service provider to use a real-time leak detection system using the Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) technology. The innovative leak detection system has helped reduce chilled water network losses by almost 70% as compared to previous years.
As part of the Chilled Water Network Leak Detection Project, Emicool with European based technology provider (Fast GmbH), is enabling early alerts of the underground leaks, reducing water loss and is identified as a unique concept compared to all existing leak detection concepts like flow meter, pressure etc. The early detection of the water loss improves the plant’s operational efficiency by reducing additional chilled water required to overcome the network leaks.
“As a Company we are at an exciting crossroad of enhancing and facilitating seamless access and integrating latest technological know-how, harnessing the growing demand for district cooling. It is indeed a strategic business decision to be the early adopters of the Chilled Water Leak Detection System technology. Complementing and supporting the chilled water storage, is our largest penetration of Thermal Energy Storage towers and around 70% of our plants are equipped with these storage facilities, serving as an ideal option to save energy. We are extremely proud to be a part of this exciting journey to contribute and be an integral partner of the evolving district cooling industry and will continue to focus on the adoption of the state-of-the-art district cooling technologies with compliance to sustainability”, said Dr Adib Moubadder, CEO, Emicool.
The chilled water pipe network will be implemented and expanded in phases across all Emicool facilities to accelerate the benefits of the unique concept across all areas of service.In line with this, recently Emicool was awarded with two awards at the International District Energy Association (IDEA) Annual Conference 2022, with a participation of experts from more than 30 countries.
The Company was awarded with The District Energy Space 2021- Bronze for Total Building Area Committed (Beyond North America) & 2022 IDEA Innovation Award honorable mention for Chilled Water Network Leak Detection Project. Marking the 9th award from IDEA, Emicool has been recognized internationally, winning the ‘Greatest number of buildings committed to district energy beyond North America’ for eight consecutive years in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, in addition to many other awards and titles, recognizing Emicool’s distinguished achievements in enhancing district cooling services globally.
“These awards acknowledge our efforts targeted at strengthening the district cooling industry, delivering efficient, robust and resilient systems, reducing reliance on conventional cooling options and curbing emissions”, added Dr Adib.
Emicool has strategic plans to transform buildings from conventional air-conditioning to district cooling, increasing the penetration of district cooling concepts in the market over the coming years.
Emicool is conferred with ISO (International Organization for Standardization) global certifications for quality, energy, and environmental management systems and is also the first district cooling Company in the MENA region with the Global Conformity (GC) Mark as a certified green company.