Arabian Centres Company (Cenomi Centres) has signed a collaboration agreement with Arabian Cooling for Cooling and Air Conditioning to build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) a new cooling plant to service its flagship Jawharat Riyadh project.

The company will require no upfront capital expenditure as per the agreement, the company said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange on Monday.

Arabian Cooling is a joint venture of FAS Energy and Sojitz Corporation.

Cenomi Centres will save nearly 13 megawatt hours (MWhr) annually in electricity consumption, delivering around SAR 4 million in savings annually.

The retailer is expected to save nearly 30 percent in operation and maintenance costs, including replacement costs, every year.

Spanning over 350,000 sqm, the cooling plant will have a capacity of 12,500 refrigeration tonnes (RT) with a 25-year operations period. The project will deploy hybrid cooling technology based on water-cooled and air-cooled chillers and a thermal energy storage (TES) tank with a capacity exceeding 14,000 cubic metres.

 Arabian Cooling obtained a temporary license from the Saudi Electricity Regulatory Authority to operate district cooling services. However, future developments regarding the JV’s acquisition of the final license will be announced at a later date.   

Jawharat Riyadh and Jawharat Jeddah will be completed at the end of 2025.

(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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