Drake & Scull wins Dubai cooling contract

DUBAI: Drake & Scull has been awarded a contract to design, build and operate a Dh120m (€29m) project to extend a district cooling network in Dubai.

Emirates District Cooling (Emicool), a joint venture of Dubai Investments and Union Properties, has awarded the contract to extend the chilled water network to new developments within Dubai Sports City.

The new network is set to increase the production capacity to 77,000 tonnes of refrigeration, which will cater to the surging demand of the Dubai Sports City development and increase the total Emicool customers’ portfolio to 20,000 in the next two years.

Dubai Sports City or DSC is a multi-venue sports complex opened in 2008 and providing a mix of residential, retail, leisure and recreational facilities. It is built around five major sports venues and features a number of sports academies.

The expansion of the new district cooling network into Dubai Sports City is seen as a more eco-friendly solution compared to conventional cooling systems. It is expected to result in an annual energy reduction of 173GW/hour and a reduction of 120,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions in Dubai Sports City.

Apart from providing chilled water to the customers, the network will also monitor consumption levels within the developments.

Emicool is planning to increase its plant capacity to 500,000TR by 2020 as rampant construction is leading to pent-up demand for district cooling services across the UAE and region. The company’s roadmap in the coming years is said to include the expansion of operations to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.