Empower, the worlds largest district cooling services provider, today announced that it has awarded an AED186 million contract to develop the companys third district cooling facility in Dubais Business Bay neighbourhood. The 45,000 Refrigeration Tonne (RT) plant will be constructed by Gulf District Cooling, and is expected to come on-stream by Q2, 2016.

Because of its complexity, reach and size, Business Bay represents one of the most important facets of Empowers growing project portfolio, said H.E Ahmad Bin Shafar, Chief Executive Officer, Empower. Our newest facility reaffirms our commitment to this dynamic and vibrant community.

The contract covers the construction and maintenance of a 45,000 RT district cooling facility, and is expected to provide cooling services to up to 40 commercial, retail and hospitality buildings in Business Bay. When completed, the facility will be part of Empowers 135,000 RT network in the neighbourhood.

As Business Bay welcomes new residents, businesses and hotels, the development of consistent and reliable infrastructure will be integral to the development of a strong community, continued Bin Shafar. As the operator of the worlds largest district cooling portfolio, Empower has the experience and technical know- how in providing cooling services to large scale projects. We look forward to the building Business Bay from the ground up and hope this serves as an example to developers that real estate plans can integrate sustainable principles that are in- line with UAEs Vision 2021.

The upcoming Business Bay facility is Empowers third project in the neighbourhood, in addition to the existing two plants operating since 2010 and 2014 with a capacity of 45,000 RT each. The latter is notable for being the regions first district cooling plant constructed under green principles, and is a certified LEED Gold building, and also the first in the region with this high capacity.

Empower currently operates over 1 Million RT portfolio and it provides environmentally responsible district cooling services to large-scale real estate developments such as Jumeirah Group, Business Bay, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai International Financial Centre, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Ibn Battuta Shopping Mall, Discovery Gardens, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai World trade Centre Residences, Dubai Design District, among others.