A district cooling scheme is described by at least three capacity figures, and its operator’s own project card usually carries all of them: ultimate contracted capacity, current connected load and installed capacity. They are different quantities, they move at different speeds, and none of them substitutes for another.
This text consolidates those figures across three schemes of one operator and sets them beside what a second operator publishes about itself. It is not an assessment of project attractiveness, not a comparison of equipment suppliers and not a tariff forecast: no tariff value appears in it at all.
What is being consolidated and from which registers
The first register is the set of project cards on the Tabreed site, covering Al Maryah Island and Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and Downtown Dubai. Each card publishes an ultimate contracted figure, a current connected figure and an installed figure, together with network and emissions data.
The other register is the news feed on the Empower site, which publishes half-year results and individual supply agreements with a stated capacity. Both registers were taken on 23 August 2026, and neither carries a date of last update on the figures themselves.
The consolidation table
The table sets the three schemes side by side across the three capacity concepts. Every value comes from the same card as the scheme it belongs to, and the percentages are the ratio of connected load to contracted capacity for each row.
| Scheme | Ultimate contracted | Current connected | Connected of contracted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Al Maryah Island | 100,000 RT | 63,000 RT | 63.00% |
| Yas Island | 100,000 RT | about 95,000 RT | 95.00% |
| Downtown Dubai | 235,000 RT | 150,000 RT | 63.83% |
| Three schemes | 435,000 RT | 308,000 RT | 70.80% |
The spread between the rows is wider than the average suggests: two schemes sit close to 63% while the third is at 95%. The project cards give no date for either the contracted or the connected value.
Contracted capacity: what the number promises
Ultimate contracted capacity is the sum a scheme is contracted to serve when the development around it is complete. Across the three schemes it is 435,000 RT, of which Downtown Dubai alone accounts for 235,000 RT, and it is the largest of the three figures on every card.
It is also the slowest to change, because it moves only when new buildings sign up. The Empower news feed shows what a single addition looks like: an agreement dated 13 July 2026 for a project with a total cooling capacity of 37,000 RT, which is 15.74% of the Downtown Dubai contracted figure on its own.
Connected load: what is metered today
Current connected load is what the scheme actually serves at the date of the card, taken here as 23 August 2026. Across the three schemes it is 308,000 RT, or 70.80% of contracted, and the three rows are not alike: Yas Island is at about 95,000 RT against 100,000 RT contracted, while Al Maryah Island is at 63,000 RT against the same contracted figure.
The difference is a maturity difference rather than a performance one. A scheme whose development is largely built out shows connected close to contracted; a scheme still filling up shows a gap, and the gap closes as buildings come on line rather than as the plant is expanded.
Installed capacity: the plant in the ground
Installed capacity is the third figure on the same operator’s pages, and it follows a different logic again. Ultimate installed capacity across the three schemes is 315,000 RT and current installed is 285,000 RT, or 90.48% of it. Downtown Dubai and Yas Island are both fully built at 170,000 RT and 65,000 RT; Al Maryah Island is at 50,000 RT of an ultimate 80,000 RT.
One number needs care. Connected load across the three schemes, 308,000 RT, exceeds current installed capacity, 285,000 RT, by 23,000 RT. On Yas Island alone the card gives about 95,000 RT connected against 65,000 RT installed. Connected load is the sum of what customers are entitled to draw; installed capacity is the plant available to serve them, and the two are sized on different bases. Reading either as the other overstates or understates the scheme by a wide margin.
Thermal storage is part of why the two need not match. Two of the three cards state a storage tank inside the installed figure — 10 KRT at Al Maryah Island and 25 KRT at Downtown Dubai, 35 KRT between them — which shifts output in time rather than adding steady-state capacity.
What the two operators publish about themselves
The two registers are asymmetric in what they disclose about their own operators. Tabreed publishes scheme-level capacity in three concepts and a portfolio count of 92 plants, of which 76 are in the United Arab Emirates, that is 82.61% of the portfolio; the remainder is five in Saudi Arabia, eight in Oman and one each in Bahrain, India and Egypt.
A second page of the same site gives a different figure for the same portfolio — 99 plants — and dates the first facility to Sweihan, Abu Dhabi, in 1998, which places the company at more than a quarter of a century of operation.
Empower publishes financial results and individual agreements instead. For the first half of 2026 it reported net profit of AED 468 million, up 16.2% year on year, and revenue of AED 1.519 billion, up 4.5%, in a release dated 6 August 2026 — a net margin of 30.81% on the half. It describes itself as the largest district cooling services provider in the world by capacity, without publishing that capacity on the same page.
The asymmetry matters for anyone comparing the two. A scheme-level capacity figure and a half-year profit figure answer different questions, and neither operator publishes the concept the other leads with. Nothing in either register makes the two comparable in a single line.
What is not in these data
A common base is not in them. Neither operator publishes the other’s concepts, so the 435,000 RT of contracted capacity across three Tabreed schemes cannot be set against any Empower figure, and no combined market total can be built from these two registers.
Dates are largely not in them either. The capacity values carry no cut-off date on either site, and only the Empower entries are dated — 6 August 2026 for the results and 13 July 2026 for the agreement. The Yas Island connected figure is additionally published with an approximation mark, so the 308,000 RT total is approximate in that component.
Two wordings are worth noting for anyone quoting the portfolio line. The homepage sentence describes 92 plants “across the GCC” and then lists six countries including India and Egypt, which are outside it; the six listed countries add to exactly 92, so the count and the geography in the same sentence do not match. The second page of the same site gives 99 plants for what it calls the same portfolio, a difference of seven. The figures are quoted here as published, on the Empower site and the Tabreed site respectively.
Nor is the customer side in them. Neither register publishes the number of buildings, the floor area served or the split between hotel, office and residential load, so the refrigeration tons above cannot be converted into an intensity figure of any kind. Anyone needing cooling demand per square metre needs a different source entirely.
Key takeaways
- Three schemes publish 435,000 RT of ultimate contracted capacity against 308,000 RT of current connected load, that is 70.80%.
- Current installed capacity across the same three schemes is 285,000 RT, which is 23,000 RT less than the connected load.
- Yas Island is the outlier at about 95,000 RT connected of 100,000 RT contracted, against 63.00% and 63.83% for the other two.
- Thermal storage inside the installed figure amounts to 35 KRT across two of the three schemes.
- Tabreed publishes 92 plants on one page and 99 on another, 82.61% of the first count in the UAE; Empower publishes H1 2026 net profit of AED 468 million on revenue of AED 1.519 billion.
Conclusions
What to watch next is the gap between contracted and connected on the two schemes that sit near 63%. Al Maryah Island has 37,000 RT still to connect and Downtown Dubai 85,000 RT, and both will close through buildings coming on line rather than through new plant, since Downtown Dubai is already at its ultimate installed figure of 170,000 RT.
The second thing to watch is whether either operator begins to publish a common base. Contracted, connected and installed are the three concepts on the Tabreed cards; until the same three appear on the other side, a market comparison in refrigeration tons has no shared denominator to stand on.
Analysis, not personalised advice. For transactional decisions, confirm the tariff value or rule directly with the utility or the regulator.