THE DALKIA BRAND… 85 YEARS OF TRUST

The Dalkia mission is to help clients reduce energy, improve environmental performance and realise positive business outcomes, says Steve Lemoine, CEO Middle East, Dalkia EDF Group

COULD YOU ELABORATE ON DALKIA AND ITS ACTIVITIES IN THE REGION?

Steve Lemoine: Since its founding in France, in 1937, Dalkia has always focused on delivering efficient and effective solutions and services for its clients. It all started when Dalkia’s founders mobilised to assist a local hospital by stepping in to run its failed critical boiler operation. It was the market’s first ever energy-performance contract. And 85 years later, Dalkia continues with this approach. Today, Dalkia has a team of 20,000 professionals. It is a USD 6 billion, multi-faceted energy services business, working under the umbrella of energy utility giant, EDF.

In a changing global energy landscape, Dalkia, with its comprehensive approach, is a trusted energy services expert. Dalkia helps clients reduce energy, improve environmental performance and realise positive business outcomes. Dalkia is a team of energy professionals engaged in customising the strategies and technologies to be implemented and operated, as well as in proposing financing options to reduce or eliminate upfront capital expenditure for clients.

EDF and Dalkia are present in five continents and have a strong presence in almost all the GCC region countries. In the Middle East region, Dalkia is supporting clients through two key activities: Energy performance contracts, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of technical equipment, with a strong focus on, and expertise in, chillers and District Cooling networks. Dalkia, and the mother group, are willing to invest more with partners in these activities, finance more District Cooling networks and to acquire expert local companies.

The common goal is to increase the use of renewables and locally available sources of energy as well as to develop energy-saving solutions. To decarbonise the energy mix and propose innovative solutions, EDF and Dalkia are relying on a strong in-house R&D department, adding more and more digital features to the services.

YOU SPEAK OF DECARBONISATION. WHAT SPECIFICALLY ARE YOU DOING AS EDF AND AS DALKIA TO ACCELERATE THE DECARBONISATION DRIVE AND TO HELP COUNTRIES REACH THEIR NET-ZERO TARGETS?

Lemoine: Wherever EDF Group operates, the objective is to invent a decarbonised energy model to address climate change-related challenges, including the need to lower the emission of carbon, increase efficiency, and to lessen the negative impact on the environment and on people.

As a multinational integrated utility, EDF Group is active in the whole energy value chain – from generation to transmission and distribution to endusers. EDF Group is a global, integrated energy company. It is one of the world’s largest electricity producers, especially in the field of renewable energy. With 140 GW of generation capacity across 30 countries – where 90% of this electricity is free from carbon emissions – EDF generates, transports, distributes and sells electricity to nearly 40 million customers, worldwide.

With an active presence in the Middle East for over 25 years, EDF Group is helping the region in meeting its net-zero targets by diversifying the energy mix and reducing carbon emissions. Relatively recently, EDF Group has developed iconic projects that are contributing to achieve these targets. To name a few, Dumat al Jandal (400MW) is the largest and most powerful wind farm in the region; and Al

Dhafra Solar Park (2,100MWp), in Abu Dhabi, is the biggest single-site solar park in the world. And then, there is the one-of-a-kind submarine HVDC cable that EDF Group is installing with the aim of decarbonising offshore platforms in Abu Dhabi.

Dalkia is capitalising on the EDF success story and expanding its activities locally by accelerating the decarbonisation of cities and buildings. Dalkia is proposing integrated solutions to decarbonise District Heating and District Cooling energy networks by using local solar installations, energy-recovery solutions, geothermal energy and sea water-based energy solutions.

With 400 experts in the Middle East, Dalkia is also contributing to the sustainability targets in the region by tackling demand side management. Dalkia’s energy-performance solutions can generate up to 40% savings through combining energy audits, implementation of energy efficiency measures and realtime monitoring of site performance.

Dalkia is also very proud of being the leader of a consortium that has been awarded the construction and operation of the District Cooling network of the Mohammed Bin Salman Non-Profit City, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

WHAT DIFFERENTIATES DALKIA FROM OTHER PLAYERS?

Lemoine: EDF Group invests nearly €660 million a year in R&D activities. The vastness of the initiative includes 2,000 researchers and nine R&D labs, worldwide. Such a large financial commitment is resulting in an opulence of innovations, which EDF Group is then able to use for its projects and propose to its clients. The innovations include more and more digital components, relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and interoperability, among other areas. Two main missions are driving the EDF Group’s researchers: Improving the performance of today’s activities and preparing for the future by working on break-up.

The Dalkia innovation department, which is actively working with EDF Group’s R&D set-up, is the backbone of Dalkia. It allows the Group to tailor its