28th July 2010
Jumeirah Islands Community

Dear Owners,

Jumeirah Islands District Cooling

Since establishment of the community Up to date, owners in JI community have only been paying consumption charges for the District cooling services provided by the service provider.

In order for Nakheel to ensure that this service will continue to be provided to the best possible standards to you in the future, we regret to inform you that Nakheel has to implement a capacity charge in line with current market pricing in order to ensure that funds are available to carry out adequate maintenance and replacement of our district cooling plants at Jumeirah Islands.

In view of the above, please be informed that from 1^st August 2010, an annual capacity charge of AED 750 per ton refrigeration will be added to the bill which you receive from Palm District Cooling. This charge is the same rate as that levied by Palm District Cooling throughout all their other communities.

So far, it hasn't won a lot of sympathy from owners, who will now have to pay more for their air-conditioning - even if they don't use it.

Here is Palm Utilities response to a question about increased costs: "Palm Utilities would like to clarify that an annual capacity charge has been levied by Nakheel - effective August 01, 2010 - to residential owners within the Jumeirah Island community."

I'm not sure if that answers or creates more questions.