Tabreed Bahrain, the world leader in district cooling, has announced that up to 50 per cent of the Kingdom’s current power demand could be freed for other uses through the large scale use of district cooling systems for new and existing developments.

The company estimates that a total of 550 mega watts (MW) of electric power capacity could be freed up by 2030 as part of the ongoing Bahrain North Shore developments – which equals a saving for the Kingdom of over BD750 million ($1,998 million).

Bahrain’s electricity supply is dominated by the demands made on it by the use of air conditioning systems which can be as much as 65 per cent during peak summer periods – much of this caused by old and inefficient cooling systems.

Tabreed Bahrain is currently working on district cooling projects for some of the Kingdom’s major projects including Bahrain Financial Harbour, Reef Island and for both existing and new developments in the Diplomatic and Seef areas of Manama.

Research by the company has shown that there will be major benefits to the Kingdom with the use of large scale District Cooling systems; including significantly reducing the demands on power generation hence saving the Kingdom considerable sums of money in an environment where Bahrain’s demand for power has increased 84 per cent since the year 2000.

“The research work and evaluation we have done clearly show there will be significant benefits to the Kingdom and private sector developers from the introduction of large scale district cooling systems,” said CEO, Tabreed Bahrain, Bernt Andersson.

“It can reduce peak power demand across the country by up to 65 per cent - particularly important when we have estimated that up to 70 per cent of new power demand will come from air conditioning demands alone.”

At a time when energy prices are forecast to grow in the longer term – especially those associated with gas which produces the majority of electricity in Bahrain – savings of this magnitude will be welcomed by Bahrain, according to Andersson.

Experts at Tabreed Bahrain also forecast that district cooling systems – long-term infrastructure projects can provide chilled water for several districts from integrated energy efficient central plants – this will play an increasingly important role in the long term development of the country.

With district cooling, building developers and owners can avoid the substantial capital costs of constructing their own chiller system, and reduce significant costs associated with connecting their chillers to the electric grid. – TradeArabia News Service