District Cooling Systems

District Cooling Systems – Many countries experience hot summers which impose a
need for air conditioning in order to achieve and maintain a comfortable indoor
environment. Air conditioning has traditionally been provided to buildings by electrically
powered air conditioning units however, this equipment can have a high power demand.
Many cities across the world are exploring alternative and more energy efficient cooling
solutions.

One such solution is a District Cooling System (DCS) which involves the production and
distribution of chilled water to multiple buildings through a network of insulated
underground pipelines. Each building connected to this central system is connected by
an Energy Transfer Station (ETS). The ETS typically uses a heat exchanger to chill
down the water of the building using the district mains. This chilled water within the
secondary building system is then used for space comfort cooling and process cooling.
This essentially means that there is no requirement for chilled water plant to be installed
locally in each building. Each building operator therefore purchases chilled water from
the central provider.

District Cooling Systems include central chiller plant, pumps, valves & distribution
pipework. Chilled water is often generated at the central plant station by dedicated
chiller units. Free cooling can also be achieved by using water from nearby rivers, deep
lakes etc. There are many examples of such systems such as in Paris where water from
the river Seine is refrigerated to around 5oC and transported 71km to serve circa. 5
million square meters of offices, hotels, theatres, government buildings and of course,
the Louvre. Another notable example case is one of the world’s largest district-cooling
system schemes at The Pearl-Qatar.

Figure 1 provides an example of a District Cooling System as designed and modeled

using FluidFlow software. This system uses two “central” cooling plant locations to
provide chilled water which is then distributed through a network of 17.8 km pipework to
serve 48 Energy Transfer Station’s.