District cooling can be defined as the distribution of cooling from one or more sources to a range of buildings. District cooling systems produce chilled water at a central plant to then pipe it out to buildings located in the district for air conditioning and industrial cooling use.

District cooling, which has long been renowned for being highly economical and cost efficient, is now widely used in downtown business districts and institutional settings such as college campuses, hospitals, governmental institutions and sports and military facilities. As a matter of fact, individual buildings don't need their own chillers anymore; a district cooling system does that work for them.

Many people may not be familiar with district cooling, because it quietly does its job. Pipes that deliver the chilled water to the connected buildings are usually buried underground; therefore, most people don't even know they exist.

District cooling systems displace peak electric power demand with thermal energy storage using ice or chilled water. This benefits the local power grid by reducing peak power demand and decreasing power congestion due to power transmission limitations in heavily populated cities.

Hence, the system does not only cool agglomerations, but also helps alleviate the challenges posed by high electric consumption. When it comes to the environment, district cooling enjoys a low carbon footprint; it has proven to significantly contribute to the reduction of Greenhouse gas emissions; the reason why Tabreed significantly brings its customers closer to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification (LEED).

With temperatures reaching 50°C in the summer, the need for cooling capacity in the Gulf States is enormous, necessitating more power production; accordingly more and more CO2 gas is emitted into the atmosphere, contributing to the Greenhouse phenomenon and the subsequent global warming hazards.