District Cooling

A district cooling network produces chilled water within a centralised energy plant and distributes it through underground pipes to buildings connected to the system and provides them with air-conditioning.

Therefore, individual buildings do not need split systems, chillers and/or cooling towers. Once used in customer buildings, the water is returned to the central plant to be chilled again and then re-circulated through the closed-loop piping network.
 

What are the common components of a district cooling network?

A district cooling network generally consists of three primary components:

  • A centralised energy plant
  • A distribution network
  • An energy transfer station, comprised of heat exchangers between the primary (district cooling side) and secondary networks (building side).

What are the benefits of having a district cooling network?

There are technical, commercial and environmental benefits with using a district cooling network, compared to a decentralised cooling system:

  • Guaranteeing chilled water tariffs and performance to end-users
  • Reducing overall electricity infrastructure cost and capital expenditure
  • Reducing energy consumption
  • Reducing operational and maintenance costs
  • Increasing reliability and efficiency by a 24/7 professional operations and maintenance (O&M) team
  • Increasing comfort and safety
  • Enhancing real-estate net space and urban landscape
  • Enhancing a sustainable development
  • Allowing building managers to focus on core business

Overall, the implementation of a district cooling network benefits to end-users, governments, master developers, real estate developers and the community, as a whole.
 

What are the district cooling solutions that Veolia offers?

We offer three different levels of district cooling solutions for the local market:

  • Operations and maintenance: we assume the responsibility for the operations and maintenance of the cooling system, including plants, distribution network and energy transfer stations. We ensure that they are operated to reliably deliver the service level required
  • Energy performance: optimise the operations and maintenance of the system and seek continuous improvements in the energy efficiency. We ensure that the
    cost of energy is as competitive as possible and guarantee the efficiency of the plant and distribution system, either through a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI),
    or by taking-over the entire energy supply chain
  • Full performance: We ensure the efficiency of your installations, and we also assume the responsibility for the management of all assets. This will allow us to further
    provide competitive energy price by reducing the lifecycle cost of the assets. This is the highest level of guarantees that we can offer.

We currently manage almost 300 district cooling networks globally and in Australia, we operate and maintain the Barangaroo 62 MW district cooling network, in addition to their high voltage embedded electrical network and recycled water treatment plant onsite.
 

Want to learn more about Veolia’s district cooling network solutions?

In Australia
Please submit an online enquiry to our customer service team or call us at 1800 531 988.

In New Zealand
Please submit an online enquiry to our customer service team or call us at 0800 325 542.