Background

The Index Tower is an award-winning, 80-storey skyscraper that contains both residential and commercial spaces. The building is characterized with a gross area of 300,871 m2 of mixed-use space, with 25 commercial stories and 48 residential stories including offices, duplex and triplex penthouses, recreational facilities, and 4 service floors.

Designed by Sir Norman Foster, the tower was first opened in 2011 and is one of the tallest buildings in Dubai.

Index Tower is in the heart of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is situated near Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and is accessible from Al Sa’ada street. It is approximately 4.0 kms away from Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC).

Problems to be solved

The tower’s size and current operational condition provide an excellent opportunity for large energy efficiency improvements through the deployment of technology and equipment, upgrades, and detailed energy management.

Currently, the building is facing high energy consumption and humidity issues due to certain equipment operation. Addressing these issues and adjusting operation would result in an increase in chilled water consumption. The Facility Management team began to focus on reducing the energy intensity of their facility in 2017, in addition to decreasing their associated carbon emissions and delta-T surcharges. This energy and environmental focus was incorporated into the FM’s first set of sustainability goals.

To help achieve these goals, Ark Energy is supporting Index as owner’s consultants by providing advisory services to internal and external stakeholders, ensuring strategy implementation, and digitalization of Energy Management and Measurement & Verifications (M&V) of savings through arkEMIS.

Index Tower Overview

• Size: 331,123 m2
• Energy Consumption: Around 13,901,595 kWh per year
• Energy Costs: +-5,870,260 AED per year (US$1,598,132 / €1,378,796)
• Optimization Target: Save 15% of total energy use per year

Solution

• In August 2021, Index Tower approached Ark Energy seeking a cloud-based energy analytics software to integrate with its existing IoT sensors—with the view to be independent of the ESCO and safeguard their investment.
• Index Tower were looking to instantaneously quantify Savings from Energy Efficiency retrofit project without waiting for the ESCO’s reports.
• The project consists of monitoring the installed ECMs to automatically Measure and Verify Energy Savings at the Premise.
• Ark Energy installed its Universal Box (Gateway) and integrated the BMS on site via the arkEMIS RESTful API allowing the electricity use data from the IoT sensors to be sent to arkEMIS energy analytics dashboard for analysis.

Results

• Automated measurements and verification of the energy surplus achieved by a specific load management measures
• Automated capture of the baseline, calculation of the energy, and detection of deviations
• Production of similar day forecast or regression model using combinations of routines variables and static factors known
• Provide monthly, quarterly and annual energy savings reports to the Owners Association
• Provide live access to our digital energy management dashboard
• Monitor end-use trends and provide monthly reports on events that impact energy consumption to the FM team