District Cooling

Keppel is the first and largest developer and service provider of District Cooling System (DCS) in Singapore. We develop and operate DCS at major business and industrial parks in Singapore, including Changi Business Park, one-north and Woodlands Wafer Fab Park, and the upcoming DCS in Jurong Innovation District and Jurong Lake District.

Outside of Singapore, Keppel also provides District Heating and Cooling System (DHCS) services for the Eco-Business Park located in Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, China. The plant incorporates geothermal technology to support its heating and cooling requirements. Keppel will also be providing DCS services in Sam Yan, Bangkok.

With the increasing focus on sustainability and the mounting density of urban populations, there is a growing demand for our district cooling and heating services. We offer:

Higher Energy Efficiency and Reliability

Up to 30% higher energy efficiency than conventional in-building systems by aggregating heating and cooling demands of facilities in its vicinity, coupled with optimal use of large-scale chiller system, thermal energy storage and real-time smart optimisation control through our 24/7 Operation Nerve Centre

Cost Savings

Avoidance of in-building chilled water plant through tapping on Keppel’s economies of scale and sharing of DCS resources
Reduced upfront capital investment and recurring operational costs resulting in long term life cycle savings up to 20%

Space Savings

Up to 75% space savings by freeing up chilled water plant room and cooling tower rooftop space as only a heat exchanger room is required
With the absence of cooling towers, rooftop spaces can be repurposed for solar installation, greenery, recreation and better aesthetics

Reduced Energy Intensification

Extensive peak load curtailment by charging large scale Thermal Energy Storage (TES) during off-peak hours for discharge during peak hours
Our proprietary Phase Change Material (PCM) utilised in TES is more efficient than conventional ice and is capable of carrying up to three times more energy than conventional water

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a District Heating and Cooling System and how does it work?

In a District Heating and Cooling System, water is heated or chilled to the designed temperature by a centralised plant and supplied through a network of distribution pipes to the buildings within a district to meet their heating or cooling needs.

A typical DHCS would comprise major equipment such as chillers, boilers, cooling towers, thermal storage tanks, hot water generators, pumps, piping systems, and heat exchanger stations with energy metering at the customers’ buildings.

Keppel is committed to provide high quality service to our customers. We are capable of meeting the various stringent service level availability required by our mission critical customers, such as data centres and wafer-fab facilities, with the multi-layered redundancies installed at our plants.

How is a District Cooling contract arrangement like and how will I be charged?

Our District Cooling contracts are typically aligned with our customers’ building leases. The charges are flexible and tailored to the needs of our customers.

When a customer decides to site their building in our District Cooling zone and tap on our chilled water supply, we will install a connecting pipeline along with the necessary heat exchangers at the customer’s site.

The customer will have an option to pay for an upfront Installation Charge or go for a zero Capex model to account for the capital investment. The recurring charges will be in the form of Demand Charge and Energy Charge to account for the operation, maintenance, electricity and water costs in generating and supplying chilled water.

As a whole, our customers will enjoy life cycle cost savings as compared to setting up and operating a chilled water system on their own.

What are measures in place to ensure the reliability and performance of the District Cooling systems?

We prioritise reliability and performance to ensure uninterrupted operation and optimal temperature control for our customers. We have built-in multi-layered redundancies to ensure uninterruptable supply of chilled water to customers even in the event of a power failure. These redundancies include mechanical, electrical and control systems backup, emergency generators, TES and looped pipe reticulation network.

To further improve our reliability and performance, our Operations Nerve Centre is capable of Digitalised Central Command and Control (DCCC), real-time smart optimisation, advanced data analytics, machine learning and Fault Detection & Diagnosis (FDD) for early detection of equipment health conditions.

Let’s work towards a sustainable future together.

Step into the future of comfort with Keppel EaaS.