District cooling bills in the UAE: who bills you and how to pay

Who sends your cooling bill

In Dubai, district cooling is billed by a permit holder: either the district cooling service provider or a billing agent, both permitted by the Regulation and Supervision Bureau (RSB) (RSB Dubai, RD10).

Providers with their own page here

• Empower, Dubai. Empower bills its customers directly: a demand charge of AED 750 per refrigeration ton a year, billed monthly in advance, plus a consumption charge from your meter (Empower, Charges Explanation).
• Emicool, Dubai. Emicool generates its invoice on the 1st of each month; its FAQ says it is due within 15 days (Emicool, FAQs).
• Tabreed, billed by Tasleem. Tabreed bills residential customers through its subsidiary Tasleem, which holds a permit for billing services (Tabreed, Customers).

Other providers and billing agents

• Nakheel communities. Some DEWA bills carry a district cooling line at the rate provided by Nakheel (DEWA, Bill Explanation).
• South Energy says it is the sole provider of district cooling in Dubai South, with a capacity of 120,000 refrigeration tons (South Energy).
• Logic Utilities handles cooled energy (AC) billing, collections and smart energy meters for property owners, developers and owners associations across the UAE. Its website has a Pay my Bill link to its customer portal and a list of payment kiosks (Logic Utilities).
• ista offers metering and billing services in the UAE, including the collection of chilled water charges (ista UAE).
• ZENNER makes cooling meters and offers billing as a managed service (ZENNER Middle East).

Rasid's list of UAE providers also includes Emaar District Cooling and Sobha Energy Solutions. This page does not cover their billing yet.

How to pay, by provider

What you pay for

Most cooling bills have two main parts: a fixed capacity charge for the cooling capacity allocated to your home, billed whatever you use, and a consumption charge for the cooling your meter records (RSB Dubai, RD10). Empower calls the capacity charge the demand charge, and Emicool calls it the contracted capacity charge (Empower, Charges Explanation; Emicool, FAQs).

Two examples of what you pay when you register: Emicool takes eight months of your unit's contracted capacity charge as a deposit, plus an activation fee of AED 200 (Emicool, FAQs). On Reem Island, Tasleem takes AED 1,000 or one month's capacity charge, whichever is greater, plus AED 300 to register (Tasleem, Reem Island charges).

In Dubai, the RSB caps several of these charges, including the deposit, the activation fee and the late payment fee. Our guide lists every cap and explains why you pay even when the AC is off: District cooling charges in Dubai, explained.

If a cooling bill looks wrong

Start with the company that sent the bill. Empower and Emicool both ask you to contact your building's facilities management first for a problem with the cooling itself (Empower, FAQs; Emicool, FAQs). In Dubai, once you have exhausted all avenues with the provider, you can raise a complaint with the RSB (RSB Dubai, FAQs).

Keep cooling bills with your other bills

Rasid is an app that keeps household bills and subscriptions in one place. Its list of UAE providers includes Empower, Emicool, Tabreed, Tasleem, Nakheel District Cooling, Emaar District Cooling, South Energy, Sobha Energy Solutions, ista, ZENNER and Logic Utilities. You can add any of them by hand. With read-only Gmail access, Rasid also looks for cooling bills emailed by Empower, Emicool and Tasleem. For a bill with a due date, Rasid reminds you three days before, at 10:00, and once it has more than one bill it shows how this one compares with the last.

Rasid does not pay bills and cannot change what you are charged. You pay your cooling provider directly.