Marina One New customer of World Largest District Cooling Network
Underground District cooling is an energy efficient outsourcing alternative to in-building chilled water production.
The multi-plant District Cooling Network
Marina One at Marina Bay will be the new customer of Singapore District Cooling (SDC)- a subsidiary of Singapore Power- that is regarded as "the world's largest underground district cooling network". On Thursday (Mar 3), the plant operations following the completion of its expansion was formally commissioned.An SP press reported that as the cooling plant there will be a centralised production of chilled water that is piped to buildings for air conditioning, and as a communal utility, services buildings close to one another within a district. Up to over 40 per cent of energy will be saved up for customers that can power 24,000 three-room HDB units. And "leveraging economies of scale, optimising asset efficiency and upholding operational excellence" are main keys to get this achievement.
"In an urban city like Singapore, climate control is mission critical for retail, for commercial offices and hotels," said Mr Wong Kim Yin, Group CEO of SP. "For instance in Marina Bay, without air-conditioning, it cannot function. And even in households, the air-condition load could be as much as half of household consumption."
"So if we figure out a way to save energy consumption significantly on climate control, it would make a big difference. This would pave the path for us to meet the global drive towards climate control and meeting the COP-21 agreement that was achieved in Paris last year," he added.
Currently, all customers in buildings at the Marina Bay Financial District are being served with the 5km centralised piping network in place that pumps about 12,000 cubic metres of cold 4.5 degree water per hour. The space requirements and upfront costs for customers' own on-site chillers and roof-top spaces for cooling towers will be eliminated via this SDC's underground centralised system.
This is "bold idea many years in the making" when developing the centralised district cooling network to serve the Marina Bay precinct, CEO of the Urban Redevelopment Authority Ng Lang said: "1.25 million square metres of Gross Floor Area (GFA) was demarcated in Marina Bay as the pilot zone for the District Cooling System project, where the use of the system was mandated and regulated by the Energy Market Authority, for instance"
As one of the requirements of Government land tender conditions, Developers at One Raffles Quay and Marina Bay Sands constructed the space for district cooling plants that resulted in the integration of two plants- one in the basement of One Raffles Quay and the other at the basement level beneath Bayfront Avenue at Marina Bay Sands, while the third satellite plant is located at One Marina Boulevard.
Mr Ng said that they reaped the benefits from early planning and thoughtful design, from freeing up space and saving costs to reducing carbon emissions
SDC in Marina will be introduced to Jurong Lake District
The Government is considering to extend the District Cooling System in tandem with developments in Marina Bay after its success, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said. The innovation in use of underground space in a Nation like Singapore will bring many unexpected benefits, and all we need to do is make further use of this and push further on this front to go underground.
SDC will get 12 customers in total and on Thursday the company signed a supply agreement with Marina One at Marina South to supply chilled water.