Khalid Al Marzooqi

Tabreed’s relentless pursuit of efficiency and operational excellence have enabled it to make district cooling sustainable and beneficial for the environment, helping companies to reduce their carbon footprints.

Considering UAE Vision 2050, what is Tabreed’s strategy in progressing the sustainable agenda of the country?

Tabreed’s operations are fully aligned with the UAE’s vision for carbon neutrality, and we are working hard to promote the undeniable benefits that district cooling affords. Ideally, we would like to see district cooling mandated at the planning stages of new developments, as it consumes approximately half the electricity of traditional AC equipment. Cooling is the biggest consumer of electrical energy in this country, and we maximize efficiency in all our operations, preventing millions of tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, which benefits everyone wherever they are. We are driven as an ESG-centric business and recently launched a Green Financing framework that backs up our environmental credentials. Tabreed also participated in COP26 as part of the UAE’s delegation and we are looking forward to furthering that relationship when COP28 is hosted here next year.

How is Tabreed investing in transformative technologies to pioneer the cooling industry?

R&D is essential for any company, and we are committed to it, not because we are obliged to, but because we believe it is vital for us, our customers, and our stakeholders. It is our relentless pursuit of efficiency and operational excellence that contribute to make district cooling sustainable and beneficial for the environment, while reducing our own carbon footprint. Tabreed recentlay announced four new projects to address some of the key challenges faced by our industry. The first of these is known as Future of Cooling, introducing a new concept design and control philosophy as well as innovative and disruptive technologies into each district cooling plant. The result should be material improvements in plant performance, as well as a prolonged life and lower plant lifecycle costs. The second is Carbon NanoTube, which has the potential to enhance the performance and lifespan of plants and equipment, reducing plant and energy transfer station (ETS) footprints using carbon nanotube (CNT) material which has outstanding properties in terms of heat transfer. The third, called Wet Bulb Forecasting, has been designed to significantly enhance demand side management, more accurately forecasting customer demand for the day ahead to allow for a more efficient operation by optimizing production of cooling, using AI. The fourth initiative targets the enhancement of the district cooling plant’s condenser circuit and its cooling tower, which is one of the critical components in the plant and has a significant impact on its performance. Tabreed is currently redesigning the equipment to enhance its efficiency through an improvement of water and air distribution, as well as heat transfer, which will eventually positively impact the overall performance of the plant. These new initiatives will improve the company’s operational efficiency while enhancing district cooling plant life and reliability, with the R&D expansion expected to increase plant energy efficiency by 30% against comparable industry performance benchmarks, at the same time lowering overall plant lifecycle costs. They will also serve as a framework for further innovations in the district cooling sector well into the future.

With the progressing digitalization across all sectors of the economy, how is Tabreed leveraging on this digital movement?

In recent years, Tabreed has invested heavily in revamping its IT infrastructure as part of its digital transformation and big data strategy, capitalizing on data generated over decades of operating district cooling plants and networks. For example, thanks to the huge amount of data readily available, Tabreed has been able to achieve what is considered a breakthrough in district cooling, by setting up a fully autonomous operation in the Downtown Dubai District Cooling Scheme, which is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. Data-driven intelligent algorithms forecast customer demand and make all operation related decisions, optimizing energy and water consumption and removing human error from operations. In addition to the environmental benefits of this project, early testing has proved a remarkable decline in equipment downtime and improved cooling supply security.