Many Dubai residents are likely to see their electricity bills rise by up to 66 per cent in the past 12 months, according to a recent survey.

The survey was carried out for leading property and facilities management event FM Expo 2009, by Farnek Avireal, the UAE company which advises building owners on how to dramatically cut utility bills.

The fourth edition of FM Expo will take place from May 24 to 26 at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre and is a key event for the Middle East property and facilities management industry, estimated to be worth $704 billion over the next 25 years.

The survey, based on actual buildings, shows a Dubai office tower of around 35,000 sq m on Sheikh Zayed Road, which had a previous annual electricity bill of Dh2.5 million ($680,000), with an increase over the past year of 65 per cent to Dh4.12 million.

Similarly, a hotel of around 20,000 sq m in the New Dubai area which had previous annual energy costs of Dh1.5 million has seen a rise of 66 per cent to Dh2.48 million.

In addition, a typical villa in Jumeirah with a previous annual energy bill of Dh24,000 has seen a rise of 37.5 per cent to Dh33,120.

Farnek Avireal says the cost of its energy saving module – which reduces electricity consumption from air conditioning and refrigeration systems by up to 25 per cent – can be paid back in savings within 12 to 18 months.

“In most cases, building owners would now be reaping the rewards of those savings if they had introduced our systems at the time of the introduction of the slab tariff,” said Markus Oberlin, general manager of Farnek Avireal Middle East, an exhibitor at FM Expo.

“The facility management industry is at the forefront of improving investment returns for building owners or tenants,” said Louisa Theobald, group exhibitions director of Streamline Marketing Group, organisers of FM Expo.

“In today’s tight markets, substantial savings like these can make or break companies,” she added. “Smart companies are growing to realise that they can obtain substantial improvements in energy efficiency for relatively low cost over short payback periods.”

The development cost of most facilities whether offices, hotels, hospitals or educational establishment represents only about 20 per cent of the total spent across the lifetime of a building with facilities management and maintenance making up the remaining 80 per cent.

On March 1, 2008, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) introduced a new tariff structure known as the slab system. It was aimed at encouraging energy consumers to use less by paying more.

Average individual electricity usage at the time was said by Dewa to be 20,000 kilowatt hours per annum and 130 gallons of water daily, placing Dubai among cities with the highest consumption per person in the world.

However, consumers, whether commercial, educational or residential who did not introduce measures to reduce consumption after the introduction of the slab tariff will have seen electricity bills in some cases soar in the past full year by over a million dirhams. – TradeArabia News Service