Tabreed strives to find new ways to improve the operating efficiencies in our plants. We have partnered with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), an independent, research-driven, graduate-level University focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, to launch a joint research and development (R&D) project that aims to enhance operational performance and reduce energy consumption in district cooling plants.
The current research project – optimal chiller plant control, phase-I – aims to create a ‘smart controller’ capable of intelligently and independently managing district cooling plants to improve operational performance and decrease energy consumption, with minimal human interference.
Tabreed and MIST are aiming to develop a software module that can be integrated with the district cooling plants’ control system to measure all external variables that impact the operational efficiencies of the plant, such as chilled water supply, return flow, outside temperature and humidity levels. The system will then automatically decide at what capacity major equipment such as chillers, water pumps and cooling towers need to operate at in order to meet customers’ cooling requirements in the most economical and energy efficient way.
One of Tabreed’s plants in Mohammed bin Zayed City, Abu Dhabi, was selected for the pilot project, which is hoped will ultimately yield results that will allow us to make further reductions in our carbon emissions.