• Ahmad Bin Shafar: “IDEA is committed to diversify its topics and the objectives of its activities to maximise the benefit of all parties involved in the district cooling and heating sector”

Dubai, UAE, 24 February 2019:  Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, headed a delegation from Empower to travel to participate in the International District Energy Association (IDEA) Campus Energy 2019. The conference is organised by IDEA, in conjunction with IDEA Board meeting, and is being from 26 February to 1 March 2019, in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Bin Shafar will also participate in the meeting as a member of the Board of Directors of IDEA, which he holds as the first Arab and Emirati since 2013. Bin Shafar confirmed that the UAE and Dubai have come a long way in the fields of district cooling and sustainability.

This has helped them to maintain their global position in the district cooling sector, and led to Dubai becoming the ‘Champion City’ for district cooling, with a capacity of more than 2 million RT.
The delegation will take part in workshops that will discuss thermal distribution and smart networks. The agenda also includes several discussion sessions that review various topics, notably the opening session, which will be steered by Rob Thornton, President of IDEA.

The session will review current trends, emerging technologies, development of the utility and transportation industry, and will give a comprehensive vision of the risks and benefits of a more flexible, efficient and a low-carbon future for energy systems in universities, health care centres, research centres, and many others. 

“Empower is committed to participate in IDEA’s specialised conferences, which aims to diversify the topics and objectives of these events to maximise the benefit of all parties involved in the in the district cooling and heating sector.

To prove this, IDEA organises the IDEA Campus Energy 2019, which focuses on increasing energy efficiency within universities, healthcare centres, research centres, and many others. District energy systems are the key pillar for efficient, flexible and sustainable energy infrastructure of these organisations,” said Bin Shafar.

Bin Shafar was also named as the “2018 IDEA Global leader” during the IDEA Conference that was held in Dubai last December.

Bin Shafar stressed that the conference is an opportunity for sharing experiences, expertise, and conversation with business partners.

The conference aims at continuous improvement in the design of systems, especially smart network systems, innovating in control technologies, creating new solutions and sharing them with participants in the conference, as well as coming up with recommendations that will advance the district cooling and heating industry around the world.

Empower has more than 1,090 buildings that are using district cooling services, catering to more than 100,000 customers.

The company operates more than 1.43 Million Refrigeration Tonnes (RT), providing environmentally friendly district cooling services to large-scale real estate developments, such as Bluewaters, Jumeirah Group, Business Bay, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai International Financial Centre, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Ibn Battuta Mall, Discovery Gardens, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai World Trade Centre Residences and Dubai Design District, amongst others.