Cooling is a critical factor contributing to the quality of life of the thousands of people who will inhabit the area of Shams – Al Reem Island in Abu Dhabi. The Shams Development District Cooling Plant (DCP) will supply 57,000 ton per hour of chilled water for the towers in the new expansion of Al Reem Island. This capacity will be enough to cool, for example, 64 of 30-storey buildings, with a total floor area of 27000 m2.
Buildings on Al Reem island in Abu Dhabi will be cooled in sustainable way, in accordance to the UAE standards on energy efficiency. 
Nineteen ACS880 ULH drives for cooling applications are installed at the Shams Development District Cooling Plant (DCP) will supply 57,000 ton per hour of chilled water for the towers in the new expansion of Al Reem Island.Th meet the limit electrical harmonics content in the network, ensuring the power network reliability
ADC Energy Systems, the leading provider of quality construction and engineering services in the cooling & energy sectors in the Middle East has been cooperating with ABB to support the cooling system applications, on both the chillers as well as the distribution pumps. Nineteen ACS880-37 drives for cooling applications control were provided to meet the limit electrical harmonics content in the network. ABB’s ultra-low harmonic drives are known to be more cost-efficient from the lifecycle cost perspective and ensure the power network reliability, but above all, the low-harmonic drives have been selected because they meet the UAE standards on energy efficiency.
“Harmonics are an important issue in the UAE. In the future, it is expected that penalties for harmonic distortions introduced into the power network in the UAE will be applied by the electric utility. Low-harmonic drives enable us to maintain a better power factor, while also ensuring that we don’t distort the overall network,” explains Raad Saghayroun, the Senior Electrical Engineer of the Shams Project at ADC Energy Systems.
The application on the Shams DCP project consists of drives for the primary, secondary, and condenser water pumps, as well as for the cooling tower. The chillers in the plant produce chilled water that is pumped to the district buildings at flow rates that are set according to the real-time demand, and in turn the pump speed is precisely controlled by the drive.
ABB is considered a preferred supplier in the UAE due to the widely acknowledged high quality of its products, warranties, and service offering. Additionally, the large installed base and domain expertise were among the deciding factors in winning the order against the other main competitor for the project.
“Correct selection and sizing of the drive, pump and motor combination for the specific application is crucial in achieving the highest overall efficiency for the entire operations, especially in perfectly matching pump speeds with real-time demand. The ABB drives have built in software to precisely monitor energy consumption, analyze data and see at which frequency they are operated during peak hours. This key data, which is easily available to the plant operation managers, enables adjustments for lowering the frequency to save energy,” says Raad Saghayroun.
ABB drives solution for the massive cooling plant offers a positive combination of energy efficient operations, high reliability at minimized downtime and immunity to network disturbances like harmonics. In addition, the drives help Shams Development DCP get optimized costs at minimum use of space, as all hardware comes built-in and no external harmonic filters needed.
