Deal signed for Makkah district cooling system

A SR 2.5 billion cooling system will be installed to handle the increased burden of cooling the new projects in Makkah’s central zone near the Holy Mosque.
An agreement to provide the system was signed recently by the Abu Dhabi-based National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) and its Saudi affiliate, Saudi Tabreed, in a partnership with the Jabal Omar Development Company.
A top executive officer at Saudi Tabreed said the project has been financed by Saudi Hollandi Bank (SHB) under a 20-year contract on a BOOT basis. BOOT stands for Build-Own-Operate-Transfer.
The memorandum was signed for Saudi Tabreed by Managing Director Rasheed Al-Rasheed, and for SHB by Managing Director Bernd van Linder.
Saudi Tabreed, owned by the Arabian Company for Water and Power Development (ACWA Holdings), specializes in large infrastructure projects, particularly power and water projects.
Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz Al-Hamdan, chairman of the Central District Cooling Co. (CDCC) said JODC wants to protect the environment by using a cooling system that consumes almost half the electrical energy of traditional systems. It also produces fewer emissions of harmful greenhouse gases.
“Under the project agreement, the project company CDCC, jointly owned by Saudi Tabreed (60 percent) and JODC (40 percent), shall develop, own and operate the district cooling system to provide cooling services to all the JODC developments in Makkah,” Al-Hamdan said.
He said the CDCC will design, construct, finance, own, operate and maintain a centralized cooling plant and a network to supply chilled water to the JODC development with an initial cooling capacity of 25,000 tons expandable to 55,000 tons refrigeration under a 20-year concession.
“The CDCC is planning to expand its activities in the central zone surrounding the Holy Mosque, utilizing this project as a nucleus for future projects. By implementing the district cooling technology, the developers can reduce the cost of construction by 30 percent along with a 40 percent reduction in operation and maintenance costs toward cooling infrastructure,” he said.