Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, has participated in the virtual workshop organized by the UN Environment Program ‘Cool Coalition’ on ‘Delivering Energy Efficient and Climate Friendly Cooling through National Cooling Action Plans’. This is the first workshop for the Asia Pacific region within the series of ‘Regional Capacity Building Workshops’ conducted by the UN ‘Cool Coalition’ and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) along with various international partners. Empower is a key partner and an active member of the UN led ‘Cool Coalition’.

The workshop featured a rich work program on the current status of the district cooling sector which is presently witnessing constant growth at the global level, thanks to the huge economic, social and climatic gains that motivate stakeholders to adopt its solutions and systems, which contribute to increasing energy efficiency.

“The active participation of the company and its contribution to the efforts exerted globally for delivering efficient and sustainable cooling form an integral part of Empower’s strategy.”, Ahmad Bin Shafar, Empower’s CEO said, “The main objective of the workshop was to bring together the international Cool Coalition participants from Asia and the Pacific, and grant them the opportunity to meet professionals and discuss how the National Cooling Action Plans can be developed and put into force. This includes studying challenges, finding solutions, seizing opportunities and regionally establishing the highly prioritized activities on the short term.

As an advisor and ardent supporter in implementing environmentally friendly district cooling systems worldwide, Empower pursues its absolute support to the various UN initiatives that aim at transforming the cooling sector to energy efficient solutions, Bin Shafar explained. He also emphasized that Dubai, the lead in taking advanced steps in the domain of district cooling, never saves an effort to share its long experience in the environmentally friendly district cooling systems with any country around the world.

Empower has sponsored and funded the ‘National District Cooling Potential Study’ for India last year and has partnered by sharing technical knowhow and expertise in the assessments of the Indian cities Rajkot, Pune, Thane and Coimbatore as part of UNEP’s  ‘District Energy in Cities Initiative’ in India. India Government had launched the National Cooling Action Plan in 2017 and District Energy Systems (DES) has been taken up in it as one of the converging technology for space cooling.

The major topics covered in the workshop included: Linking NCAP with the Montreal Protocol, India NCAP – Best Practice Experiences, The NCAP Development Process and Cooling Demand Assessment, Access to Cooling in NCAP, Mainstreaming National Cooling Plans into National Strategies among others.

It is worth mentioning that Empower provides district cooling services to more than 1,252 buildings, catering to more than 140,000 customers, with a total cooling capacity of 1.64 million Refrigeration Tons (RT). The Company is providing its environmentally-friendly district cooling services to a number of high-profile developments in Dubai, including Deira Waterfront Development, Bluewaters Island, Jumeirah Group, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai International Financial Centre, Business Bay, Dubai Healthcare City, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Palm Jumeirah, Discovery Gardens, Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai Design District, Dubai Production City and many others.