Home » Innovation » District cooling concept
DISTRICT COOLING CONCEPTS
Implementation of Innovative Solutions using District Cooling Concepts at the Manipal University, Manipal.
Manipal University, Manipal
The Academic & Hostel Blocks at Manipal University had their respective Peak Cooling at different times. The capacity requirement to cater to each of these buildings’ requirement separately would’ve been around 10,000 Tonnes.
OBJECTIVE
-
Optimum Energy Use
-
Easy Maintainability
-
Optimize Plant Foot Print
-
Cost Effective
District cooling, as a concept, means the centralized production and distribution of cooling energy through a central distribution network. The output of one cooling plant is enough to meet the cooling-energy demand of dozens of buildings.
THE CONCEPT
At Manipal University, the Academic block had a peak cooling requirement during the day, whereas the Hostel block’s peak cooling happened in the evenings.
As opposed to the standard approach of having individual plant rooms catering to each of these blocks, we applied the concept of District Cooling, thus managing the cooling in both these facilities through a single plant room, connected through a central piping.
-
Maximization of Diversities
-
Increased Energy Efficiency
-
Reduction in O&M Costs
-
Reduction in Infrastructure
THE IMPLEMENTATION
Though the approach has inherent advantages of being cost effective & environmentally sustainable,effective utilization needs considerable attention & planning, including heat load calculation for the buildings, ETS (Energy Transfer Stations) design, and Equipment selection such as AHU, pumps etc.
We’ve applied similar concepts at an Infosys building, replacing their existing outdated 4 Plant Rooms with a single central plant room system with latest & more efficient machineries.
