Wael Ayoub, Business Development Manager Qatar Cool, explains the readings obtained at one of the several screens at the control tower of IDCP.


By Salman Siddiqui/Staff Reporter

District cooling projects are not only economically viable in the long term, but a cost comparison done over a period of 20 years reveals that it is 30% cheaper than other conventional cooling methods, Wael Ayoub, Business Development Manager Qatar Cool, said yesterday.
He was giving a detailed presentation to the media yesterday at the Pearl-Qatar’s Integrated District Cooling Plant, which Qatar Cool calls ‘the world’s largest district cooling plant.’
He explained that through district cooling only one KW is needed for one tonne of refrigeration, while 1.7KW is required for the same amount of refrigeration through conventional cooling.
“Qatar Cool is saving already around 64MW through its contracted 90,700 tonnes of contracted district cooling projects in West Bay and Pearl-Qatar,” Ayoub added.
Mohannad Khader, vice-president (commercial) at Qatar Cool, said that it was difficult to give an exact amount needed to establish district cooling plant, but added that generally it costs around QR10,000 per tonne of refrigeration produced by the plant.
He said that Qatar Cool would not operate district cooling plants at Lusail city because there was another company already involved that had been given that task. Khader added that the focus for Qatar Cool for now would be to expand within the West Bay area in Doha.
District cooling entails the production and circulation of chilled water to multiple buildings through a network of insulated underground pipes.
Qatar Cool’s first plant in West Bay, which has a capacity of 30,000 tonnes of refrigeration, began operations in September 2006.
The second plant in West Bay, with a capacity of 37,000 tonnes of refrigeration started operations in October 2009. Both plants are providing cooling service to almost 50% of existing towers in Doha’s West Bay.
Nahar S al-Mutawah, VP Operations & Services, said that Qatar Cool’s IDCP on The Pearl-Qatar inaugurated in Nov 2010 will ultimately supply 130,000 tonnes of refrigeration to the Island’s projected 45,000 residents.
At the IDCP yesterday, the media was told that the plant had 52 centrifugal chillers arranged in 26 models in series counter flow arrangement forming a 5,000 tonnes of refrigeration train. It has 26 horizontal double suction condenser water pumps (constant flow) with a rate of 7,500 US gallons per minute.
The total area that can be served by IDCP is more than 3.9mn square metres (41mn square feet), occupied by 45,000 residents at more than 100 Pearl towers that include approximately 15,000 apartments and 1,500 villas.