District cooling (chiller) charges in Dubai

How a chiller bill is built

If your building is on district cooling, your air conditioning runs on chilled water piped in from a central plant, and the plant operator (or a billing company acting for it) sends you a bill separate from DEWA’s. In Dubai that bill has two regulated parts. Executive Council Resolution No. 6 of 2021, Article 11(a), says tariffs are based on cooling capacity and may also use cooling energy.

• Capacity charge, also called the demand charge. You pay for a fixed amount of cooling capacity reserved for your unit, measured in refrigeration tons (RT). One RT is 3.517 kW of cooling. The developer sets your RT from the unit’s size and type, and it is in your contract and on every bill. You pay it every month, whether the AC is on or not.
• Consumption charge. You pay for the chilled water you actually used, measured in RT-hours (RTh) by the meter on your unit. This is the part that climbs in summer.

On top come a meter or billing-service fee, the DEWA fuel surcharge that providers pass through, and 5% VAT on all of it.

Resolution 6/2021 also says what the bill must show: the contracted capacity, the capacity unit rate, the consumption, the consumption unit rate and any billing service charges. If your bill does not show these, ask the provider for them.

Empower’s published rates

Empower (Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation) is the only Dubai provider we found that publishes a rate card. These are the figures from its charges page, calculator and FAQ.

Empower residential charges

Charge	Rate	How it is billed
Capacity (demand) charge	AED 750 per RT per year	Monthly in advance, pro rata to the days in the month
Consumption charge	AED 0.568 per RTh	Monthly in arrears, from your meter
Meter maintenance	AED 30 a month or AED 50 a quarter	Depends on location
Fuel surcharge	Passed through from DEWA	No per-RTh figure published
Disconnection for non-payment	AED 500	Per disconnection
Voluntary disconnection	AED 150	Per instance
Meter test, no fault found	AED 160	Only if the meter is accurate
VAT	5%	On every charge

Empower also charges a one-time connection fee, but does not publish the amount. We have not verified a separate reconnection fee.

Worked examples

The slips below come from the same code as the calculator, and each is a test case.

A 6 RT unit in January

6 RT is Empower’s own example. With 600 RTh on the meter (Empower’s January planning range for 6 RT is 481 to 864 RTh) and a AED 30 monthly meter fee:

Monthly cooling bill estimate

Empower's published ratesJanuary, 31 days

Capacity (demand) charge6 RT × AED 750 a year × 31 ÷ 365 days	AED 382.19
Consumption charge600 RTh × AED 0.568	AED 340.80
Meter maintenance feeAED 30 a month	AED 30.00
Before VAT	AED 752.99
VAT 5%On every line above	AED 37.65
Estimated bill	AED 790.64

Fuel surcharge not included: providers pass it on as DEWA notifies it, and no per-RTh figure is published. Capacity charge uses the annual rate ÷ 365 days, the formula on Empower's charges page. Estimate only; your official bill takes precedence.

The capacity charge is 6 × 750 = AED 4,500 a year, and January’s share is 4,500 × 31 ÷ 365 = AED 382.19.

A 3 RT unit in a hot July

Empower’s planning figures put a high July at 369 RTh for every RT, so a 3 RT unit could use 1,107 RTh. This one pays its meter fee quarterly:

Monthly cooling bill estimate

Empower's published ratesJuly, 31 days

Capacity (demand) charge3 RT × AED 750 a year × 31 ÷ 365 days	AED 191.10
Consumption charge1,107 RTh × AED 0.568	AED 628.78
Meter maintenance feeAED 50 every 3 months, shown as a monthly third	AED 16.67
Before VAT	AED 836.55
VAT 5%On every line above	AED 41.83
Estimated bill	AED 878.38

Fuel surcharge not included: providers pass it on as DEWA notifies it, and no per-RTh figure is published. Capacity charge uses the annual rate ÷ 365 days, the formula on Empower's charges page. Estimate only; your official bill takes precedence.

Consumption is now three quarters of the bill. The capacity charge is the same AED 191.10 it would be in any 31-day month.

An empty flat

The same 3 RT unit in June, empty, with zero consumption. Empower’s capacity and meter charges carry on while a unit is disconnected:

Monthly cooling bill estimate

Empower's published ratesJune, 30 days, vacant

Capacity (demand) charge3 RT × AED 750 a year × 30 ÷ 365 days	AED 184.93
Consumption charge0 RTh × AED 0.568	AED 0.00
Meter maintenance feeAED 30 a month	AED 30.00
Before VAT	AED 214.93
VAT 5%On every line above	AED 10.75
Estimated bill	AED 225.68

Fuel surcharge not included: providers pass it on as DEWA notifies it, and no per-RTh figure is published. Capacity charge uses the annual rate ÷ 365 days, the formula on Empower's charges page. Estimate only; your official bill takes precedence.

Three ways Empower itself works out the capacity charge

This is the part that makes chiller bills hard to check to the dirham. For a 6 RT unit in January, Empower’s own material gives three different capacity charges:

| Where | Method | January, 6 RT | | --- | --- | --- | | Charges page, formula as written | 4,500 ÷ 365 × 31 | AED 382.19 | | Charges page, result as printed | the page prints 387.50, which is 4,500 ÷ 360 × 31 | AED 387.50 | | Online calculator | 750 ÷ 12 rounded to 63, × 6 RT | AED 378.00 |

The gap is under AED 10 a month for 6 RT, but it explains why a careful calculation can be a few dirhams off your bill. Our calculator uses the formula Empower prints (÷ 365) and says so on the slip. We do not know which divisor Empower’s billing system uses.

How much cooling you will use: Empower’s seasonal figures

Empower’s calculator assumes a fixed amount of consumption per RT for each month, in a low and a high version. These are Empower’s planning figures, not regulated benchmarks, but they are the only official consumption profile we found. The calculator above uses them to show a range under the consumption field.

Empower's assumed RT-hours per RT of capacity, by month

Month	Low (RTh per RT)	High (RTh per RT)
January	80.19	144
February	89.1	144
March	121.5	198
April	186.3	297
May	226.8	360
June	226.8	360
July	234.9	369
August	234.9	369
September	226.8	360
October	186.3	297
November	121.5	198
December	89.1	144
Year	2,024.19	3,240

For 6 RT, Empower’s calculator turns these into a capacity charge of AED 4,500 a year and consumption of AED 6,898 to AED 11,042 a year, before VAT and meter fees.

Chiller-free or chiller-paid: comparing two flats

“Chiller-free” is a listing term, not a regulated one. We found it used for two different set-ups:

• Cooling included. The building is on district cooling, but the landlord pays the provider and recovers the cost through the rent or service charge. You get no chiller bill.
• No district cooling. Each unit has its own air conditioning running on electricity. There is no chiller bill, but the AC load shows up on your DEWA bill.

Ask which one it is. To compare a chiller-free flat with one where you pay the cooling yourself, estimate a year of cooling for the second flat. For a 3 RT unit on Empower’s rates with a AED 30 monthly meter fee:

• capacity: 3 × 750 = AED 2,250
• consumption: 3 × 2,024.19 × 0.568 = AED 3,449.22 (low) to 3 × 3,240 × 0.568 = AED 5,520.96 (high)
• meter fee: 12 × 30 = AED 360
• with 5% VAT: about AED 6,362 to AED 8,538 a year

That is our arithmetic on Empower’s figures, not a published number. If the chiller-free flat is the “cooling included” kind, that range is roughly what the higher rent or service charge is buying you. If it is the “own AC” kind, part of the saving goes back to DEWA.

Other providers

Emicool

Emicool publishes its fee structure but not its rates. According to its FAQ:

• the capacity rate is the “fixed annual rate outlined in your Emicool contract”, divided into 12 monthly payments and payable “regardless of connection or consumption”
• there is a refundable security deposit of 8 months of the contracted capacity charge
• activation costs AED 200, and a late payment fee is AED 100
• DEWA’s monthly fuel surcharge is passed through, based on the electricity used to make the chilled water
• a fixed metering charge applies per meter or invoice, amount not published
• if a meter fails, the bill is estimated from the same month last year (for at most two cycles), or else from the previous month

For an Emicool bill, choose “Another provider” in the calculator and enter the capacity and consumption rates printed on your bill.

Tabreed and others

We found no official page from Tabreed or any other Dubai provider with a residential rate per RT or per RTh. Rates are set building by building or contract by contract. The calculator will not guess them: enter the rates from your bill.

Billing companies

In many buildings the bill comes from a billing service provider, a sub-metering company that reads the meters and bills residents, rather than from the plant operator. Resolution 6/2021 covers billing service providers too, and their billing-service charges need the same approval as the cooling tariffs.

Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Energy regulates district cooling under Law No. 11 of 2018, with District Cooling Regulations in force since September 2019. The page we checked publishes no end-user rates, so this calculator is for Dubai.

The rules behind the bill

Executive Council Resolution No. 6 of 2021, issued on 4 March 2021, regulates district cooling and billing services in Dubai, including special development zones and free zones such as DIFC. The parts that matter for a resident:

• Every charge needs approval. The Supreme Council of Energy approves all charges and tariffs that permit holders propose (Article 12(a)), and no permit holder may collect a charge that has not been approved (Article 12(b)).
• The bill has to show its working. Contracted capacity, capacity unit rate, consumption, consumption unit rate, billing service charges and other details the Regulatory and Supervisory Bureau requires.
• Two named surcharges. A low delta-T surcharge and an excess cooling load surcharge are approved surcharge types.
• A standard contract. The Regulatory and Supervisory Bureau approves a standard customer contract, and existing contracts are to be amended to match it.

Empower also states that since 1 January 2011, following a Supreme Council of Energy recommendation, district cooling companies pass DEWA tariff increases and fuel surcharges on to customers. That is why your chiller bill can move when DEWA’s fuel surcharge does.

You will read that landlord or agent markups on chiller bills are “no longer allowed”. The resolution does not mention markups by name. What it says is that unapproved charges cannot be collected, so a markup would need approval like any other charge. That is an inference from Article 12(b), not a quoted rule.

Edge cases

• Vacant unit. The capacity charge and meter fee keep running. Empower says demand and meter charges continue while disconnected, and Emicool says its capacity charge is payable regardless of connection or consumption. An empty 3 RT flat on Empower costs about AED 226 a month.
• Moving in or out mid-month. Empower’s capacity charge is pro rata to days, so a partial month should carry a partial charge. Check the dates on your first and last bills.
• Estimated readings. If the bill says “estimated”, the consumption is not from your meter. Emicool’s rule is to use the same month last year, for at most two cycles. The next actual reading corrects it.
• Meter you think is wrong. Empower will test it. If the meter is accurate, the test costs AED 160.
• AC off all winter. Consumption can fall close to zero, but the capacity charge does not.
• RT on the bill differs from the contract. Raise it with the provider. RT is set by the developer and should not change from month to month.

If you think the bill is wrong

Start with the provider or billing company, in writing. Ask for the contracted RT, both unit rates and the meter readings, which Resolution 6/2021 requires the bill to show anyway. Compare them with the calculator. If a charge appears that you cannot match to an approved tariff line, ask what approval it is billed under.

The resolution names the Regulatory and Supervisory Bureau as the regulator for district cooling in Dubai. We have not verified a public complaints channel for residents, so we do not link one here.

Common mistakes in other guides

• “AED 0.568 fils per RT per hour.” The rate is AED 0.568 per RT-hour, which is 56.8 fils. The garbled wording appears on Empower’s own charges page and has been copied widely.
• “AED 0.62 per RTh.” We found this figure on no Empower or government page. Empower’s 0.568 plus 5% VAT is 0.596, not 0.62.
• Capacity billed quarterly. Empower’s charges page says the capacity charge is billed monthly in advance. The quarterly figure in its material is the AED 50 meter fee in some locations.
• One “typical” monthly cost per bedroom. Bills depend on the RT the developer assigned to that unit, the season and the provider’s rates. A single figure per bedroom count is a guess.
• Chiller cost “included in DEWA”. Not for district cooling. It is a separate bill from a separate company.

How this calculator works

• Inputs: provider, contracted capacity (RT), this month’s consumption (RTh), billing month, meter fee, and optionally other charges from your bill such as the fuel surcharge. For providers other than Empower, the capacity and consumption rates from your bill.
• Capacity: RT × annual rate × days in the month ÷ 365. February is 28 days, or 29 in a leap year.
• Consumption: RTh × rate.
• Meter fee: AED 30 for a monthly fee, or a third of AED 50 for a quarterly fee, so the month shows its share.
• VAT: 5% on the subtotal, rounded to the fil.
• Not included: the fuel surcharge (no per-RTh figure is published; add it from your bill), connection fees and deposits.

Nothing you type leaves your browser. The figures behind the calculator are in the sources list below with the date each was checked.