Energy-conscious companies in UAE reap few financial rewards, experts say

Companies that install energy-saving equipment in their buildings do not see savings in their utility bills, experts say.

DUBAI // At Microsoft offices across the Middle East, high-efficiency lights and motion sensors installed in meeting rooms, kitchens and bathrooms ensure that lights are turned off when the rooms are not in use. Timers on copy and printing machines automatically turn off these devices after 7pm each day.
Such steps have cut consumption by 10 per cent, the company says, but it will not reap the financial benefits: there are fixed rates for energy and water in many of Microsoft's buildings across the Gulf, including its headquarters in Dubai Internet City.
This disconnect is a deterrent to saving energy for many other UAE organisations that, like Microsoft, do not own the buildings in which they are located.
"This is the biggest impediment," said Elaine Kelly, a real estate and facilities portfolio manager for the Gulf and Saudi Arabia at Microsoft. She began introducing the energy-efficient changes in September of 2010.
"Landlords are not willing to install separate meters," she said. "The measures reduced our carbon footprint, but they cost money."
The lack of financial savings keeps other companies from implementing such energy-efficient procedures, she said. If tenants pay fixed rates, there is little incentive to measure their energy performance and introduce changes, said Ms Kelly, who will be addressing the issue at the Middle East Real Estate Summit in Abu Dhabi on April 23.
In Dubai, Microsoft is taking up 80 per cent of the building that houses its offices, and there was an option to pay for energy based on use, rather than the size of the office space rented.
But splitting the bill with other tenants would have been a complicated issue, Ms Kelly said. With a metered system, Microsoft would have been required to collect utility payments from smaller tenants in the building. Microsoft still has the option of paying only for what it uses in case it becomes the sole tenant of the building at a later time, she said.
Tecom Investments, the building's landlord, said it offers a "wide variety of tenant spaces and configurations that have been constructed over a period of time".
"Thus there are different mechanisms and configurations currently in use towards billing," said Badr Al Gargawi, Tecom's chief executive officer, engineering management, in a statement to The National. "We have spaces that range from where these utility costs are part of the base rent to spaces where either some or all of these utility costs are directly billed by and paid for, by the tenant."
Tecom tries to promote energy efficiency by sharing best practices among tenants and by launching a green office programme last year. It has also installed efficient technologies in the common areas of its buildings, Mr Al Gargawi said.
In six years, the measures have saved 63,555 megawatt hours of power, enough to cover the yearly energy consumption of 2,648 two-bedroom apartments, Mr Al Gargawi said.
"We firmly believe that environmentally responsible tenants will strive for savings regardless of a meter or not," he said. "However, making tenants responsible for utility costs can contribute to enhancing the visibility and quantification of the impact of a tenant's utility consumption profile. Thus, it can serve as a driver for environmentally accountable and responsible behaviours".
While technology and design play a major role in cutting the energy consumption of buildings, measuring and monitoring energy performance is the first step toward efficiency, experts have said. The concept is still gaining momentum in the UAE.
"It is an absolutely great starting point and part of a journey everyone should make", said Dr Rob Cooke, head of sustainability at the engineering consultancy Buro Happold Middle East.
"There is a real lack of the application of monitoring and targeting [performance] in the UAE...We really could save significant amounts of energy," said Dr Cooke, who is also the technical committee coordinator for the Emirates Green Building Council.
For now, reaping the benefits of savings is easier for organisations or companies that own the buildings where they operate. Last year, the Department of Economic Development in Dubai subscribed to a system that enables engineers to monitor energy performance and manage large electric equipment remotely, in real time, in a new facility in Dubai.
"We have already seen the results in our energy bills," said Vishal Gupta, project manager at two buildings with a total size of 60,386 square metres.
Mr Gupta said that energy savings of up to 12 per cent have been realised, with the largest cut seen in energy use for cooling.
The department subscribed to the Emirates Energy Star Programme, developed by the Dubai-based company Pacific Controls. The programme, offered via the telecom operator Etisalat, is already working in over 700 buildings in the UAE.
 
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