Doha conference addresses the future of district cooling in the region

The 8^th Annual Middle East District Cooling Conference kicked off at the City Centre Rotana Doha Hotel, Doha today. The event witnessed key stakeholders, decision makers and leaders from the district cooling industry engage in a dialogue on the future of district cooling technology in the region.The conference sponsors and exhibitors also demonstrated their innovative solutions and technologies tailormade for project developers and government agencies to equip them with energy efficient solutions for the future.

The conference kicked off with an inaugural keynote address by Dr. Khalifa Nasser Al- Khalifa, Dean at College of Engineering, Qatar University. The opening sessions featured stellar presentations on technological advancements in DC, smarter water utilization, secrets to successful delivery of DC projects and insights on DC system maintenance by Hubert Poels, Managing Director at WATCO; Hussam Sammour, GM at Trane (Qatar); George Berbari, CEO at DC Pro Engineering, Jim Phene, Director of Business Development EMEA at LAKOS Separators and Filtration Systems (USA), Tim M  Burbury, Partner at King & Spalding and Andrei Sleptchenko, Assistant Professor at Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University.

The post lunch session included a presentation by Nauman Rashid, Marketing Director for MEA at GE Water & Process Technologies, titled 'Water treatment technologies for sustainable and cost effective district cooling operations' which focused on water and treated sewage effluent (TSE) treatment as well as control automation and knowledge management solutions. The second presentation titled 'Cost saving with customized STARTING solution' by Thomas Zirk – Sales Director at AuCom MCS GmbH & Co examined new motor starting concepts such as the Multi Motor Starting concept and emphasized its advantages.

The key highlights of the day included a keynote presentation by Abubakr Jenaid Al Hadrumi on 'District cooling in Qatar & GCC, future and challenges' and a Wrap-up Panel themed 'Exploring the challenges faced in developing a strong foundation for DC implementation and role of renewable energy for DC' which was moderated by Muhammad Ali, Design Manager (District Cooling) at Marafeq Qatar while the panelists included Mohamed Nagib Omara, Head of Strategic Planning & Technical Advisor to the President at Kahramaa, Hubert Poels, Jim Phene and Ville Iljanko, Managing Director at Hogfors.

As a special feature for the event, the organizing company (Fleming) planned a site visit to the Marina District Cooling Plant for the participants. The massive 175 kms of district cooling network is being developed by Lusail Real Estate Company and Marafeq Qatar Company which will feature a staggering 1000 energy transfer stations; Once completed, this will be the world's largest district cooling system. The primary source of cooling for the plant is TSE which is polished using ultra-filtration and reverse osmosis. The plant is an engineering marvel which seeks to set a new benchmark for sustainable developmental projects.

On the second day of the conference dedicated sessions will be focused on sustainable development and energy efficient cooling systems, key developmental issues for new district cooling systems, solar cooling systems, best practices in district cooling and quality control. The second day will also feature an exclusive session titled 'Ashghal: Application opportunities of treated sewage effluent in district cooling & challenges towards environmental compliance in Qatar' by Dr. Ghazi El Sherif, Environmental Expert at Public Works Authority, Ashghal and a Wrap-up panel themed 'Investigating the challenges to implementing district cooling'.

The 8^th Annual Middle East District Cooling Conference is organized by Fleming, with Marafeq Qatar as the Strategic Host & Headline Sponsor. The event is supported by Qatar Green Building Council. TRANE and rss have partnered as the Platinum sponsors, while AuCom, ELIPS, IGEL Electric and Greenergy are onboard as the Gold sponsors. SWEP, WATCO Group and ARANER have joined the conference as the Brazed Plate Heat Exchangers Partner, Cooling Tower Partner and the Bronze Partner respectively. LAKOS and unicorp BEMCO & ALMABANI have partnered as the Official filtration and Separating partner and official EPC Contracting Partners respectively. The Associate sponsors for the event are Alfa Laval, RRC, VEXVE, Hogfors and DC Serve.