Industry News

Press Release, Empower Energy Solutions

• Total revenues amounted to AED 1.96 billion
• Total Cooling Capacity serving 40 projects across Dubai reached to 1.34 million RT
• Total number of buildings served by 73 plants reached to 1,000

Dubai, UAE, 19 February 2018: Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider, announced that it has achieved a net profit of AED 772 million in 2017, an increase of 20% over the year 2016. Empower’s total revenues in 2017 amounted to AED 1.96 billion, an increase of 6.1% compared to the last year.

The announcement of Empower’s financial results for the year 2017 was made by Ahmad Bin Shafar, the Chief Executive Officer, at a press conference held on 19^th February 2018 at The Westin Hotel, Al Habtoor City, Dubai.

Bin Shafar stated that “Empower’s strong financial results reflect its continuous efforts and commitment to deliver efficient and cost-effective district cooling services complying with the highest international standards and the best global practices.”

Bin Shafar highlighted that “2017 was another significant year for Empower. We connected various buildings in “Jumeirah Village South” project and the prestigious “Bluewaters” development with district cooling services. “The Opus”, a commercial tower located in Business Bay, designed by Zaha Hadid, the world-renowned international architect, was also connected with our services during the year. Empower is also providing its services to various hotel developments in Dubai and connected new hotel developments such as “W Resort Hotel & Residences”, “Emerald Palace Kempinski”, “ALOFT” and “The Retreat Palm” located in Palm Jumeirah.”

Empower supplies district cooling to approximately 17% of the  hotels in Dubai. The list includes three of the tallest hotels in the world - JW Marriott Marquis Dubai Towers, the Burj Al Arab, and the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel. These hotels have been listed by WorldAtlas.com as among the five tallest hotels in the world. In addition, Raffles Hotel Dubai, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Atlantis The Palm and Ibn Battuta Hotel have adopted district cooling and have entrusted Empower to provide the services.

The company continues generating healthy earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and has accordingly re-paid loans amounting to AED 390 million during the year. Empower has also declared dividends amounting to AED 400 million to its shareholders which demonstrates the robustness and the strength of its business model and its financing strategy. Empower continues to build capacities in line with the project requirements and this strategy has helped in achieving consistent financial results since inception.

Empower is closely working with various upcoming real estate developments and some of these include – “Museum of the Future” - The Museum aims to become a unique incubator for futuristic innovations and designs and is part of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s vision of an innovation-led economy. Empower has also signed an agreement to serve “Innovation Hub”, a new business park dedicated for the purpose of innovation in technology, new media, smart education and the sciences.

“Empower aims to attract and recruit Emirati youth, as part of its relentless efforts to support Emiratization and increase the proportion of Emirati employees at various job areas” noted Bin Shafar.

Bin Shafar stated that Empower will continue to increase its production capacity and connect new projects/developments during the year 2018. Through this, we aim to support Dubai's leading role in reducing carbon emissions, in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Customer happiness initiatives

Empower is committed to provide best services to its customers in meeting their cooling requirements. We have introduced various electronic and smart services such as - an electronic calculator on our website which helps customers in monitoring and planning their district cooling consumption. It also helps in reducing energy consumption and achieving significant savings. We have also witnessed a significant increase in utilisation of our e-services, with approximately 285,000 transactions out of total 524,000 customer service transactions, carried out through e-services during the year.

Empower also recently opened two customer happiness/service centres including one in Business Bay, which covers an area of 2,000 square feet and has additional parking spaces.

Empower currently has 1.34 million RT of cooling capacity, providing 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 Mall, Discovery Gardens, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai Design District, International Media Production Zone, Jumeirah Village, Bluewaters, and  others.