Etisalat and Pacific Controls Launch the Environment Friendly 'Emirates Energy Star' Program

DUBAI, UAE, October 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- H.E. Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, the UAE Minister of Environment, today inaugurated an environment friendly project - "Emirates Energy Star", a collaborative effort by Etisalat and Pacific Controls to engage and execute the project, the first of its kind in the region that aims to substantially reduce energy consumed by existing buildings in the UAE. This initiative is an extension of the memorandum of understating signed earlier this year.

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Emirates Energy Star, jointly sponsored by Etisalat and Pacific Controls, will champion the cause of improving energy efficiency in existing buildings thereby reducing the overall carbon footprint leveraging the transformational Machine to Machine (M2M) technology to deliver cost effective, real-time managed energy services.

Inaugurating the project, H.E. Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, the UAE Minister of Environment, said: "I would like to congratulate Etisalat and Pacific Controls for their vision for sustainable development in the UAE. Through this transformational and innovative initiative, both Etisalat and Pacific Controls are doing their bit for the environment, and encouraging other organizations to think about sustainable development. I applaud both these organizations for their efforts towards this direction, as the Ministry of the Environment encourages such initiatives in the UAE."

Commenting on the project Mr. Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President, Business Solutions at Etisalat said: "Today worldwide energy consumption is at an all time high and there is immense ecological, social and environmental pressure to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Being one of the leading telecommunications corporations in the region, Etisalat is leading this initiative from the forefront through the 'Emirates Energy Star' program, in alliance with Pacific Controls. The program will leverage on green technologies such as M2M, to effectively help reduce the carbon footprint of the country."

Mr. Dilip Rahulan, Chairman and CEO, Pacific Controls, said: "We are pleased to collaborate with Etisalat to launch Emirates Energy Star. Buildings consume more than 40 per cent of the energy produced in the world. In the UAE, it is estimated that this figure is higher. This is mainly due to cooling and lighting loads within buildings. Emirates Energy Star will plan, engage and execute Managed Energy Services with existing building owners, to increase the efficiency of the existing building stock."

Etisalat clients who are building owners, contractors, real-estate companies, government entities, infrastructure owners like utilities and airports, can collaborate and leverage the resources of the Emirates Energy Star offering using Etisalat networks and Pacific Controls Command Control Center to optimize operations, reduce service costs, increase return on assets and remotely manage them in real time.

The Emirates Energy Star will help building owners with an initial audit that would identify potential Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs). The program will design ECMs for individual buildings; establish minimum costs; calculate the maximum energy savings; implement the project parameters as contractor; provide on-going monitoring and identification of project performance after completion; carry out measurement and verification of carbon footprint of buildings in real time.

The Emirates Energy Star Rating System "ENERGY STAR AWARD" will be bestowed on participating building owners. It comprises of five successive levels, based on the energy efficiency improvements achieved through the Program, beginning with a minimum of 10 per cent for one star and ending with five stars for 30 per cent and above.

Apart from the obvious cost savings for the end user in the form of lower energy utility bills, the Emirates Energy Star will help decrease pollution, water consumption and resultant waste. The building owners will be able to recover their investment towards the program from the savings that they make. The payback period for the building owner would be in the range of 18-24 months depending upon the STAR rating the client opts. Due to compelling ROI the uptake of this program is expected to be high.

Etisalat

Etisalat operates in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, servicing over 107m customers. Etisalat is a comprehensive telecommunications provider offering a one-stop shop for mobile and fixed-line voice and data services to individuals, enterprises and international telecommunications companies, ISPs, content providers and mobile operators.

Pacific Controls

Pacific Controls is an IS0 9001:2008 company providing ICT-enabled city centric managed services for buildings & infrastructure globally from the world's first Global Command Control Center; using its enterprise platform "GALAXY", hosted on the Pacific Controls Cloud Computing Network. The company has delivered some of the world's largest ICT projects. Visit http://www.pacificcontrols.net.

SOURCE Pacific Controls Systems L.L.C.