Published on: 27/05/2009
Publication: Zawya
Country: United Arab Emirates

The region's only dedicated, comprehensive HVACR (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration) conference to focus on a hitherto-never-before-discussed topic in the district cooling industry Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 19 May 2009: CPI Industry, the publisher of Climate Control Middle East, will host a panel discussion, titled 'District cooling: an end-user perspective on costs, efficiency, reliability' at C3 2009 (The Climate Control Conference), on May 31 and June 1, 2009 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).

C3 is an HVACR-dedicated event that seeks to fulfil the aspirations of the HVACR industry in the Middle East for a comprehensive and objective platform to address current industry issues and to understand technological innovations and business models. The panel discussion that is to focus on the end-user perspective is but one example of addressing a relevant issue.

B Surendar, Editorial Director of CPI Industry, said, "The end-user perspective is key to the success of the district cooling industry. While the talk on district cooling has often revolved around engineering, equipment, finance and logistics, the industry has not given adequate attention to the needs of the customer. We are keen on filling this vacuum through C3."

The panel discussion will comprise Ragheed Haydar, the Manager (ELV) at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai; Alan Millin, Director of Consultancy at Imdaad; and Hassan Shemi, the Director of Engineering and Projects Department of Abu Dhabi National Hotels (ADNH). George Berbari, the CEO of UAE-based DC Pro Engineering, will moderate the discussion.

Berbari said: "The end-user is the one who pays the bill but not the one who makes the decision to source district cooling services. Maybe the latter fact has undermined his role during the early stages of district cooling development. As more district cooling capacity is put in operation (close to 1,000,000 tonnes of refrigeration), there are an estimated 500,000 persons who use centralised air conditioning fed by the district cooling utilities.

"The end-user has benefited from the high reliability and better indoor and outdoor environment provided by district cooling, which is technically assessed by most to be the ultimate air conditioning system. However, there is a major complaint regarding district cooling service fee.
"The end user, in general, is not used to paying the demand rate, typically stipulated as Dirhams per tonne of cooling contracted per year, which is meant to pay for the investments, investment returns and overheads for the district cooling utilities."

C3 enjoys the support of the industry. Trane is the Gold Sponsor, while TAS Middle East is the Silver Sponsor. ASHRAE is the Event Partner. For details on the event and how to participate, visit www.ccube.org