IDEA's 4th District Cooling Conference

Shafiq Khoori says DEWA has been one of the biggest supporters of district cooling.
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Colin Goulding, chief operating officer

What are you doing here this week?

It’s good to see old friends and discuss various issues, as each company has its own unique problems. It’s a fiction that the district cooling market is one simple sector – it’s hugely different in terms of countries, applications and circumstances. So Dubai and Abu Dhabi have their own problems and opportunities and the same is the case in Saudi Arabia. This forum represents a great opportunity to see how different companies have dealt with different issues.

Can you give a brief snapshot of your company’s history and operations?

The partnership with Tabreed has been a great fit and we’ve now been operational for four years. However, there are difficulties – water is extremely scarce and it’s hard to come up with a plan for district cooling if there’s no water available! Water demand from elsewhere is strong, and there’s no legislative mechanism that will allow for this to happen. We started speaking to private operators, but there is still the difficulty of how to get the water transported to your plant,so it all takes time.

How is the future looking for the district cooling market in the Kingdom?

I’ve managed to convince several of the larger players that outsourcing is worthwhile, and that it’s possible to make savings
on quality, not just on cost.

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Refaei Mohamed Amin, sales engineer

Can you offer a description of your services?

We mainly manufacture pre-insulated pipelines which are used in many applications. Our major interest in the Gulf countries is district cooling. For example, we’ve supplied some of the pipes for the Burj Dubai. A lot of countries are now starting to look at district cooling because it saves energy and cost, and is also good for the environment.

What new products are you most excited about?

Our patented leak detection system is entirely unique and has been used to detect moisture and leaks throughout entire buildings. A number of buildings, such as the Louvre in Paris and DisneyWorld, are already using the product to protect computer rooms. This is not an ordinary cable – it’s a pre-insulated cable inside the pipe, which is protecting itself from corrosion as well as the pipe insulation. It also doesn’t just detect leaks, but any breaks in the line, with their location, so you don’t need to dig up the entire pipe to source your leak. It’s a time-domain reflectometry product.