National Central Cooling Company PJSC (Tabreed), one of the leading UAE-based regional district cooling utility companies, has announced to integrate data-based operational intelligence software across its network of district cooling plants to improve overall plant performance and reliability
Created by OSIsoft, the PI System is expected to collect, analyse, visualise and share a large amount of data produced by Tabreed?s network of plants.
?The PI System gives us real-time insight into our systems, which plays a major role in enhancing customer satisfaction and our services provided to them,? said Jean-Francois Chartrain, chief operating officer at Tabreed.
?This kind of immediate application of such world-class technology is the cornerstone of digital transformation and we hope to leverage technology like the PI System to predict equipment malfunctions and proactively enhance our operations. Data analytics solutions will increase our ability to deliver affordable and reliable chilled water to our customers,? Chartrain added.
Tabreed tracks approximately 30,000 data streams or ?tags,? monitoring metrics such as real-time and historical power consumption, cooling energy production and equipment status.
District cooling crucial for the city
District cooling consumes up to 50 per cent less energy than conventional individual air conditioning, reduces maintenance and capital costs and lowers CO2 emissions. By reducing demand for conventional air conditioning, Tabreed estimates its own operations have contributed to eliminating 986,750 tonnes of CO2 annually, an equivalent of taking 214,000 cars off the road, and contributed to saving 1.97bn KW per hour across the GCC.
District cooling is expected to play a pivotal role in many regions in curbing the escalating energy demands of air conditioning, which currently accounts for approximately 10 per cent of global electricity consumption and is the fastest growing use of energy in buildings, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). By 2050, around two-thirds of households are expected to have air conditioners. Demand for air conditioning power is expected to triple by 2050, an increase that would require an increase in capacity equivalent to the current electrical capacity of the USA, EU and Japan.
The PI System
In facilities, the PI System is used to manage power consumption for more than 135mn sq ft of building space at leading universities, research hospitals, data centres, national laboratories, stadiums, government centres and corporate campuses. The PI System is also used to optimise district heating networks across France.
J Patrick Kennedy, founder and CEO of OSIsoft, noted, ?Data is the one commodity in the world that gets more valuable the more people use it. In Tabreed?s case, digital transformation can help improve the company?s performance, enhance the comfort of its customers and ultimately benefit the greater community.?
