Telangana partners with Tabreed to host Asia's largest district cooling system

Hyderabad, Sep 6 (IANS) Tabreed, a UAE-based developer of world-class, environment-friendly district cooling solutions, will invest $200 million in Telangana to develop Asia’s largest district cooling system.

The company will develop 125,000 refrigeration tons (RT) of cooling infrastructure in industrial parks including Hyderabad Pharma City.

This was announced after Telangana’s minister for industries K. T. Rama Rao met Tabreed leadership in Dubai on Wednesday.

According to a statement released from the minister’s office in Hyderabad, over the years, Tabreed will develop 125,000 RT of district cooling plants and networks providing more sustainable long term cooling services through a utility cooling as a service model for process cooling and storage requirements of industrial units.

The first-of-its-kind, ground-breaking initiative will bring multi-fold benefits of highly reliable, superior cost-efficiency, and unprecedented economies of scale, resulting in 6,800 GWh of power savings and 41,600 mega liters of water savings, will pave the way for reduced greenhouse gas emissions by saving 6.2 million tons of CO2.

Government of Telangana signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tabreed to explore district cooling infrastructure in existing and upcoming commercial districts of Cyberabad and other mixed use development areas which offer potential to reduce over 200 MW of peak electricity demand resulting in annual CO2 reduction of 18 million tons over a 30 year period while mitigating heat island effect that will further bolster Hyderabad’s position as one of the best cities to live and work in Asia.

Senior leadership team of Tabreed led by its CEO Khalid Al Marzooqi met Rama Rao and other senior officials accompanying him.

“By prioritizing cooling as a key action area through cool roof policies and energy-efficient district cooling, we are shaping a greener and healthier environment for our communities by contributing significantly to our ambitious vision of making Telangana net-zero by 2047,” said minister KTR

Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, Chairman of Tabreed, said,  By bringing our expertise in district cooling to the world's largest net zero pharmaceutical cluster and also, extremely high tech industrial zone, we are not only shaping the future of the industrial clusters, but also setting a powerful precedent for environmental responsibility.”

Atul Bagai, Country Head, India for the United Nations Environment Program noted that meeting cooling demand through solutions that foster responsible and reduced energy consumption have emerged as a key priority in efforts to meet energy transition, security or sustainability goals for any country.