Nile City Towers

The Nile City Towers is a five stars administration building. It is also the head quarter of the following companies:
- ORASCOM Constructions 
- ORASCOM Telecom 
- Egyptian Company for Cement
- Mobinil company for mobile service

What were the challenges in fulfilling the wishes of the customer?

The main problem was that the building contained a large number of fan coil units, so there is a high starting current by starting all the fans. The traditional solution for this problem was resizing the electric cables and changing the rating of the installed breakers to higher range which causes more money, time and reinstallation. Therefore an intelligent solution should be found. That was a challenge for the KNX team to prove the benefits of KNX system.

Why was the decision for a KNX solution made?

The solution was turning on the fan coil units in groups with a delay time. That means the first group starts ON. After it reaches the steady state the second group starts ON and so on. This process will be implemented automatically by the time schedule via KNX.

Lighting Control and Regulation

• Switching
• Dimming
• Time Control
• Daylight Dependant Switching
• Constant Light Regulation
• Light Scenes
• Panic Lighting

Blind and Shutter Control

• Movement to Preset Positions
• Central Control
• Type of Sun Protection: Curtain

Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC)

• Time Control
• HVAC Fault Monitoring
• Presence Dependant Control
• Type of Heating / Cooling System: Fan Coil Unit

Energy and Load Management

• Consumption Measurement
• Circuit / Socket Outlet Switching
• Circuit Monitoring

Security and Fault Monitoring

• Presence Simulation
• Panic Switching

Operation, Indication and Visualisation

• IR - Remote Control
• LCD Display
• Display Panel
• Visualisation via PC

Audio / Video

• Interactive Operation via KNX
• EIB / KNX Multi-Room-System

Remote Access and Control

• Remote Control via Internet / Telephone

Central Automation

• Complex Logical Operations
• Time Control
• Collective Scenes

Interfacing to other Building Systems

• Communication Gateway to other Systems (BMS via OPC-Server)

Other Applications

• Emergency chilled water control system

General Facts

Owner / Investor	ORASCOM Group
Location	Egypt, Cairo
Type of Building	Offices
Year of Construction	2003
Architect	H2/L2 WASSEF / Gensler
Consultant	CONTRAK USA
Integrator / Contractor	ORASCOM Constructions
Floor Space (m²)	4000 m²
No. of Floors	32 floors each tower
No. of Offices / Rooms	1280

KNX Installation Facts

Number of Lines	135
Number of Components	19
KNX Proportion in the Construction Volume	2.850.000 EUR