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Sea water-cooled chilled water plants have been popular in Hong Kong and have been preferred for district cooling systems. This is generally recommended by policymakers and consultancies as a more energy-efficient option than cooling tower-equipped chiller plants. Often district cooling and sea water cooling (including lake water) is discussed synonymously as usually district cooling plants are large and generally only large plants are worth the hassle of sea water cooling.

The argument of district cooling systems has always been the ability to concentrate capital to deploy better performing technology and the centralization of equipment to allow for maintenance and operation. All of this is supposed to make the plant more efficient, and these arguments may not be as true nowadays and there is an engineer’s bias to build bigger and more complicated systems.

The author would challenge these conceptions and explore the realities of district cooling and seawater cooling. This paper will argue that generally it is district cooling plants will be less efficient than multiple distributed chiller plants serving the same load at the same technology level and that centralization will result in an increased chance of catastrophic failure. There is however a window of opportunity where district cooling systems are competitive and desirable, this paper is intended to be a guide to assist in the decision if a district system and or sea water cooled system should be pursued.

Product Details

Published:
2022
Number of Pages:
10
Units of Measure:
Dual
File Size:
1 file , 1.4 MB
Product Code(s):
D-TO-22-C048
Note:
This product is unavailable in Russia, Belarus

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