Lars Hummelmose

Managing Director

DBDH

lh@dvdh.dk

Denmark

For companies, adhering to district cooling, there are a number of obvious advantages on the property operating and maintenance budget. District cooling means that you do not need to allocate resources for monitoring a decentralized cooling systems. At the same time, there will not be spent time on maintenance and service of the system. On top of that, a district cooling customer has the advantage that the downtime is eliminated when components are replaced or serviced. District cooling also protects against breakdowns in individual cooling systems since district cooling is central production monitored by professionals.

Some of the benefits for operation and maintenance in district cooling are:

• large supply
• increased energy efficiency
• flexible power needs – with district cooling, the cooling requirements can easily be raised
• lower operating and maintenance costs
• reliability and stability.

According to megatrends analyses, some of the largest global challenges are:

• USA – electricity demand peaks at 1PM in the summer time
• Japan – import of LNG and the cooling off excess heat
• Middle East, Asia and Africa – the expansion of the power grid cannot fulfill the need for power
• Europe – energy policies etc.

District cooling is a part of the solution to some of these largest global energy challenges.

In recent years, urbanization, globalization and rising cooling demands have led to an increased interest in the environmental and economic benefits of district cooling. The energy demand for cooling is still low compared to the demand for heating, but as the heating demand is expected to stay at the current level, we will see an exploding demand for district cooling the coming years. When we look 50 years ahead, the energy needed for air condition will overtake the energy needed for heating. Therefore, there will be an enormous market potential in district cooling, and in many ways, the advantages of district cooling are similar to those of district heating. There is a considerable synergy effect of centralizing the production of energy, which reduces the need for peak load installations. District cooling also implies risk reduction for the individual consumer, and economies of scale for the energy supply company.

District cooling offers benefits to every link in the chain: The end-consumer, the utility company and the community in general. For the consumer the benefits include: Better economy, no noise from chiller, reduced risk of sudden repair costs, no hazardous refrigerants in the building, easier to certify the building with a green certifyicate and available space on rooftop and basement for other purposes. For the utility the benefits includes: Entering a new profitable market, establishing a long-term relationship with customers, adding a new product and service to the portfolio (which can also help opening the district heating market), utilizing district heating operation expertise, strengthening environmental image and performance as well as obtaining synergies between power, heat and cooling production.

For the community in general the benefits from district cooling are significant, too, as the European industry association Euroheat & Power estimates that if district cooling accounted for 25 % of the European cooling production, CO2 emissions would be reduced by 50 million tons.

There is also an aesthetic aspect connected to the technology as most of us agree that old-fashioned air conditioning units mounted on building walls and balconies result in unsightly blemishes on any building and can make even the most attractive, well-designed architectural buildings look ugly. District cooling will be an apt troubleshooter to this problem.

So district cooling gives local jobs, lowers CO2 emissions, levels out the demand for electricity, gives a better use of the building and for the owner of the house, it frees capital to other investments, while improving the conditions for operation and maintenance.