Empower’s net profit climbed 27% percent to reach AED 516 Million in fiscal year 2015

Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, recorded a net profit of AED516 million for fiscal year ended December 2015, representing an impressive 27% increase over 2014.Total revenues for the year reached AED 1.66 billion, a 12% increase YoY.

This was announced at a press conference held yesterday, (Tuesday23 February, 2016) at Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai.

“Empower achieved an annual increase of6.7% in its cooling capacity, to pass it over 1,115,000 Refrigeration Tons (RT) in 2015. Moreover, the company boosted its production and commissioned new plants,” said H.E Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower.

Bin Shafar pointed out that the company increased its workforce by 13% in 2015.Bin Shafar added: “The district cooling industry achieved significant growth in 2015 not only in the UAE but also internationally.Many countries are now more determined to adopt district cooling, thus reducing their dependence on conventional cooling systems. It is a matter of pride for UAE to be at the forefront of countries that deployed district cooling technologies since a long time.”

Empower follows a business model that works on the strategy of investing in plants and network infrastructure driven by actual demand in specific projects. This has resulted in sustainable growth of the company and avoided unproductive investments.

“Empower has wrapped up 2015 with series of achievements that have established its position as the world’s largest district cooling services provider. These achievements included expansion of business operations, enhancement of its global contribution to the district cooling sector, conclusion of a series of new deals and agreements, increase in community support, better employee satisfaction and happiness, and a qualitative shift in the reduction of environmental impact,”said Bin Shafar.

“In line with the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on the importance of preserving our natural resources and strengthen Dubai's position as a global hub in green economy and renewable energy on the basis of Green Economy for Sustainable Development, Empower has made significant efforts to promote district cooling as an alternative to conventional cooling systems that deplete natural resources of oil and water and has harmful environmental and economical impacts. The development of Empower derives from the qualitative progress of the UAE, which has become a role model in sustainable development. The UAE is one of few in the world that took the initiative to think about conservation of natural resources since long time,” he added.

Empower signed many contracts in 2015, one of these contracts is to build Business Bay District Cooling Plant 3 (BB – 3) project. The Plant will be operational in the second quarter of 2016. Moreover, Empower won a strategic contract with Bluewaters LLC, the subsidiary of the master developer Meraas Holding, to provide the Bluewaters flagship project in Dubai with 25,000 refrigeration tons (RT) of district cooling services. In addition, Empowerawarded a contract to build chilled water pipes network across Madinat Jumeirah Phase 4 to facilitate it with district cooling systems, plus many others projects.

State-of-the-art Command Control Centre

In 2015, Empower’s state-of-the-art, world-class Command Control Centre (CCC) has started monitoring the activities of its plants, through an advanced, high-performance smart network. The new centre has capacity to serve additional plants in the future. Empower said the smart connectivity of its plants through this centre was being powered by the communications infrastructure of Dubai. Empower has plans in place to connect all its plants and buildings through the Command Control Centre by June, 2016. 

“This represents a new chapter in the history of district cooling operations in the world, thanks to the state of the art centralised Enterprise level SCADA system. CCC also uses programmable logic controls (PLC) which ensure that the data is more accurate, and well archived. This will help us to make decisions based on real-time data to achieve best results,” said Bin Shafar.

ISO Certified

In 2015, Empower was audited for three management systems ISO 9001:2008, OHSAS 18001:2007, and Environmental Management Systems ISO 14001:2004.  The certifications recognise set of standards for Quality, Occupational Health and Safety, and Environmental Management Systems. The company also successfully completed Information Security Management System audit. The Audit was based on ISO27001:2013 standard which covers compliance of international information security requirements.

International Participations

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has chosen Empower as a partner of its ‘District Energy in Cities’ initiative. UNEPpresented the ‘District Energy in Cities’ book, in which they selected Dubai as a "Business Model of District Cooling to Developing Cities" and Empower was named as a partner to contribute to District Energy in Cities initiative.  

Also, a senior delegation from Empower headed to Paris to participate in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 21st Conference of Parties(COP21). The aim was to review the implementation of sustainable cooling systems around the world, and share our experience in District Cooling.

Awards

Empower started 2015 with the Dubai Chamber CSR Label in recognition of its success in operating sustainably and responsibly across its corporate practices. The Corporate Social Responsibility Label was developed by Dubai Chamber to function as a concise and voluntary standard for businesses across the emirate to incorporate corporate social responsibility practices across their operations. In March 2015, Empower has won the “Mudaraba Deal of the Year” at the Islamic Finance News Awards. 

Empower was presented with several other awards including The International District Energy Association (IDEA) Gold Space Award for the total square feet of district cooling committed, and IDEA Silver Award for total number of buildings committed to the system at the awardsceremony of the 106thInternational District Energy Association (IDEA) Annual Conference and Trade Show, held in Boston, USA. Also, IDEA has honoured Empower with the IDEA Innovation Award 2015, in recognition of its Centralised Metering Data Management System that manages more than 50,000 smart meters. In addition, The General Pensions & SocialSecurity Authority (GPSSA) has honoured Empower for being one of the first companies to adopt the Collection of Contribution Systems, an online automated pension collection method. Furthermore, HE Ahmad Bin Shafar, CEO of Empower won the CEO of the Year – Energy in the CEO Middle East Awards 2015, organised by CEO Middle East Magazine, published by ITP Publishing Group.

Social Support

“We participated in many international and local events, also supervised and supported several community events in the educational, health and awareness, economic and other fields. We look forward to a new phase of success in 2016, to reinforce our leadership position on the map of district cooling companies in the world,” concluded Bin Shafar.

Empower operates more than one million one hundred thousand Refrigeration Tons (RT), providing environmentally friendly 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 Mall, Discovery Gardens, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai World Trade Centre Residences and Dubai Design District, amongst others.