Following the inauguration of the €4 million heating and cooling energy production plant at Tignè Point, Solutions and Infrastructure Services – the joint venture between Midi plc and Siemens Italia SpA – is looking to partner major projects with similar concepts, chief executive officer Nicola Girardin told The Times Business.
Two years in the making from design to deployment, the state-of-the-art plant is a first for Malta as its serves a variety of end-users: by providing all heating and cooling requirements for 25,000 square metres of retail space, 250 luxury apartments and 20,000 square metres of office and commercial space, at Tignè Point.
The plant’s efficiency and green credentials translate into a reduction of CO2 emissions of four million kilos, the equivalent of the pollution emitted by 4,000 cars each travelling 10,000 kms a year. Based on the current load, the plant reduces electricity consumption by 2.8 million KWh. When the entire development at Tignè Point is completed in around three years’ time, the savings will near seven million KWh.
A similar plant is planned for Manoel Island to serve the requirements of a luxury residential village and other projects.
Established in 2006, SIS encompasses two complementary companies: Midi, the ambitious development company behind Tignè Point and Manoel Island, and Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering group and second worldwide, market leader in building technology, industry, healthcare and energy. Employing more than 400,000 people worldwide with an annual turnover of €76 billion, Siemens yesterday reported a healthy rise in net income for its second quarter to the end of March of €2.8 billion. It raised its earnings forecast for its 2011 financial year to at least €7.5 billion.
Siemens brings considerable technological expertise to the venture and is able to lead significant knowledge transfer to Maltese employees.
Apart from the plant at Tignè Point, SIS has installed and operates a range of services at the Midi project, including building management systems access control, video surveillance, a 24/7 control and operations centre, facilities management, car park operations, ICT telephony and broadband solutions, and co-location services.
Now SIS is seeking to replicate the unique business model within “major national projects”. Marketing efforts also saw the firm’s capabilities showcased at the Malta Property Expo in March.
“We are now fully geared to approach the external market with our expertise in product design and project management,” Mr Girardin said. “SIS, backed by Siemens, possesses the know-how, the competencies, the quality approach to deliver project design and technology supply, in partnership also with other local suppliers. We strongly believe in quality of service: only a reliable service will maintain a long-term partnership with customers.”
Mr Girardin emphasised SIS was striving to deploy Siemens’ same vision and principles: ethical business, responsibility and respect for the environment by engaging state-of-the-art technologies. In Malta, SIS aimed to be a benchmark of technology innovation, design innovation and comprehensive solutions.
He added the three-pronged company vision focusing on responsibility, innovation and excellence was well perceived on the local market. SIS was also clear evidence that companies with different core businesses could operate together to address specific customer requirements.
The crown jewel in SIS’s portfolio is undoubtedly the HVAC plant at Tignè Point. With the centralisation of heating and cooling production and distribution SIS is able to guarantee reliable energy supply to all end users, including all future operations like heated indoor and outdoor pools, and the leisure centre. All of the plant’s functions have redundancy and the system and plant is fault-tolerant by design.
Designed to be scalable and modular, it will serve needs according to demand. It also means there are no local cooling or heating components in the building. Performance and energy savings can be improved upon by the automated building management systems through real time data collection and functional analysis.
All residents and business users are billed according to their consumption.