Inaugurated by the UAE Minister of Environment, HE Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, the project is first of its kind in the region to harness technology to substantially reduce energy consumption for organizations

Dubai, October 17, 2010 -  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 Control Systems. Etisalat and Pacific Control Systems will collaborate, engage and execute the Emirates Energy Star project, a first of its kind project 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.

Emirates Energy Star project, jointly sponsored by Etisalat and Pacific Control Systems, will champion the cause of improving energy efficiency in existing buildings thereby reducing the overall carbon footprint. The project will leverage on 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, from 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 Control Systems, said: "We are pleased to collaborate with Etisalat to launch the Emirates Energy Star Project. According to available statistics, 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 these buildings. The Emirates Energy Star project will plan, engage and execute Managed Energy Services with existing building owners, in order to increase the efficiency of the existing building stock."

Etisalat clients who are building owners, contractors, real-estate companies, government entities, and 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 their operations, reduce their service costs, increase their return on assets and have the capability to remotely manage them in real time.

The Emirates Energy Star program 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; and carry out measurement and verification of carbon footprint of the building 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 Energy Star 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 program 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.

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About Etisalat
Etisalat operates in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, servicing over 107m customers out of a total population of approximately 2bn people. In 2009, Etisalat reported annual Net Revenues of AED 30.831billion and Net Profits of AED 8.836 billion marking a 5% and 16% increase respectively, compared to 2008. Etisalat is rated by Moody's: Aa3, Standard & Poor's: AA- and Fitch Ratings: A+. 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. Etisalat is also the major hub in the Middle East, for internet, voice, mobile broadband, broadcast, roaming and corporate data services, with an extensive regional and intercontinental network. It is the largest carrier of international voice traffic in the Middle East and Africa and the 12th largest voice carrier in the world.  Etisalat is a major investor in Thuraya, one of the world's leading satellite geo-mobile communication systems covering approximately two thirds of the planet's surface. 

About Pacific Controls
Pacific Controls is an IS0 9001:2008 company providing ICT enabled managed services and converged engineering solutions for buildings and infrastructure projects globally. Pacific Controls has pioneered the concept of city centric management of buildings and infrastructure, and has established the world's first Global Command Control Center for energy and managed engineering services. The Global Command Control Center serves clients globally by enabling the monitoring and management of their assets, carrying out: continuous commissioning, measurement & verification of their carbon footprint and converting them into carbon financial instruments, in real time. Pacific Controls offers its managed services using "GALAXY" its enterprise platform hosted on the Pacific Controls Cloud Computing Network. Global assets are connected in real time to the cloud using M2M hardware developed by Pacific Controls. The company has delivered some of the world's largest ICT enabled integration projects.  For further information, please visit:  www.pacificontrols.net

For more information, please contact:
Etisalat
Mohammad Okour
Mobile: +97150 8815000
m.okour@asdaa.com
www.etisalat.ae
 
Pacific Controls Systems
Jumana Aman
Watermelon Communications
Ph: +971 4 283 3655
Mob: +971 50 744 0576
Email: jumana@watermelonme.com 

Press release issued by - Etisalat

© Press Release 2010