Cofely Besix Facility Management said it has won a contract to provide total facility management (FM) services to the UAE-based Masdar City for the next three years.

Masdar City is a sustainable urban development that fosters an innovation ecosystem, connecting education with research and development and business with investment opportunities. It is also home to the first clean-tech cluster in the Middle East integrated with a world-class research institute, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology.

Powered by renewable energy, Masdar City combines sustainable design principles to showcase how an urban environment can accommodate denser populations with fewer resources even in a dry, arid climate.

Cofely Besix said the contract is initially for a three-year period, and includes full hard, soft and civil FM services including operations and maintenance of electrical systems, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) and ventilation systems, potable water, fire detection systems, life-safety critical systems, elevators, building management system (BMS), low-voltage systems and civil infrastructure work.

Cooling of the buildings is provided via an energy-efficient district cooling plant located within the confines of the site to assist natural cooling elements of the building design, stated a top official.

“Energy management plays a key role in the scope of work, and we will be introducing several innovative forms of technology and ideas to continually improve our efficiency and service delivery,” explained Ian Harfield, the chief executive of Cofely Besix Facility Management.

“It is very important for us to be part of the evolution of the Masdar project, especially now as it starts to mature as a concept," said Harfield.

For Cofely Besix FM to be aligned with a customer that is dedicated to energy efficiency in a living city environment, really applies a test to our operations and maintenance teams to ensure that it all works towards a common goal, and the results merely reinforce the sustainable vision set by Masdar,” he added.

Designed as a clean technology cluster with special economic incentives, the city attracts companies to commercialise and deploy new energy technologies in the Middle East.

The community is currently home to 198 companies, including the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), Siemens’ regional headquarters.-TradeArabia News Service