With the increasing awareness of energy efficiency in the region, the demand is rising for integrated control for HVAC systems in entire buildings, says Brian Mayes (right), managing director Middle East region, Control Systems International.

Energy efficiency is now being increasing important to building owners and operators across the Middle East.

Even though the region remains more than amply supplied with oil, the supply price of electricity is increasing and therefore the ongoing cost to consumers of running air-conditioning, as well as lighting (which often represents almost half a building's electrical load) is coming under scrutiny. And all this is happening at a time when the region is striving to enhance its worldwide appeal as a centre for commerce and tourism through improved services and infrastructure.

As a result, the services offered by companies such as Control Systems International (CSI) - which manufactures and supplies controls for the entire heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) sector, and which has comprehensive experience of operating in the region - are fast becoming increasingly important to everyone involved with commercial, retail, hotel, leisure, educational and government developments where environmental conditions are paramount.

Ventilation and air-conditioning have long been an essential requirement in the Middle East and has hence been taken for granted for as long as there has been power to operate the equipment. Running costs have been negligible so they have rarely been considered. Now the situation is changing - and changing fast.

No longer is air-conditioning equipment left to operate unchecked, unmonitored and uncontrolled. In buildings where overhead costs matter, the air-handling units (AHUs) and associated pumps and chiller machines are all being fitted with controls that ensure optimum performance of the overall system is achieved at the most realistic cost.

And the equipment that is being supplied is becoming much more sophisticated. Building owners and operators are no longer content to install stand-alone controllers on their air-conditioning equipment; they are seeking a networking capability that ensures entire buildings are being cooled to satisfactory levels, not just individual areas which are served by individual items of plant.

To achieve this, users throughout the Gulf states are turning more and more to building management systems. They are calling for efficient and easy-to-use products requiring only limited technical expertise to bring the positive gains that manifest themselves in superior environmental conditions, while reducing monthly energy costs.

But they are seeking more! They want intelligence.

Controls Systems International is now witnessing an increasing appreciation of the benefits of integration, the means by which the control of air-conditioning is linked to, and inter-operates with, other control systems such as security, closed circuit television (CCTV), fire and the sub-metering of electricity in multi-tenanted buildings.

Furthermore, customers are looking for all items to be supplied locally and from one source. It is for this reason that CSI has created a network of value-added resellers (VARs) across the region that are capable of providing bespoke solutions to match all customer requirements - quickly and efficiently. It has established a major regional office in Beirut, Lebanon, from where it technically supports and trains all its VARs and plans are now advanced to open another similar office in the Gulf.

It is recognised that if the entrepreneurs and social services providers of the Middle East (and those in the Gulf states, in particular) are going to cope with increasing costs of energy at the same time as providing higher degrees of building automation, then they will require sound, reliable support from people who listen to, and understand their requirements, and who can solve problems promptly and efficiently.

Hotels and hospitals require 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week service from their air-conditioning; computers, the life blood of banks and commercial developments need reliable and close control air-conditioning; and shopping malls and other retail developments catering for such events as the Dubai Shopping Festival are subjected to rapidly changing levels of heat extraction.

All, of necessity, place great demands on energy resources, but it is becoming essential for those demands to be controlled. The Middle East is certainly becoming one of the most exciting and vibrant regions of the world and as its status increases, so will its dependence on companies like Control Systems International, dedicated to providing total solutions to all environmental requirements.