Malaysia looks to district energy systems

Malaysia looks to district energy systems

District energy systems, a more sustainable way of heating and cooling
buildings, have been around for more than 120 years, but they are only now
getting their day in the sun. From Paris to Singapore and Dubai, more cities
are deploying the tried-and-tested technology to reduce their energy use and
carbon emissions.

According to UN Environment, a United Nations agency, a transition to these
systems can help cities to reduce their primary energy consumption for
heating and cooling by up to 50 percent. They also form the central
infrastructure for many cities' 100 percent renewables or carbon neutral
targets.

In Asia, Malaysia has teamed up with UN Environment to boost the use of
district energy in Iskandar Malaysia, a growth region in southern Malaysia,
and other parts of the nation of 30 million people.

In April 2017, the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and the UN
Environment-led District Energy in Cities Initiative announced that they
would develop planning guidelines and other policies to encourage the
installation of district energy systems in Iskandar and elsewhere in
Malaysia.

Experts from the District Energy in Cities Initiative will contribute their
expertise in barrier and opportunity analysis, technical assessment,
identification of regulatory gaps and development of initial strategies to
unlock Iskandar and Malaysia's district energy market and outline the
technology's potential use.

The initiative consists of 38 public and private partners, including
non-government groups, industry associations, utilities, manufacturers and
firms such as the French energy company ENGIE Group, as well as 45 cities
across the world. It is helping six other countries, namely China, Chile,
India, Morocco, Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, to adopt the technology or
improve their systems.

Unlike conventional air-conditioning and heating systems, district energy
systems consist of a network of underground pipes that pump hot or cold
water to multiple buildings in a district, neighbourhood or city. They are
able to use larger sources of heating and cooling, such as waste heat from
power stations, which cannot be connected to a single building.

The district cooling system in Singapore's Marina Bay precinct, for example,
has reduced its customers' energy use for air-conditioning by more than 40
percent compared to traditional air-conditioning systems. Other cities that
have deployed the technology include Milan and Frankfurt.

The Megajana District Cooling System, Cyberjaya

Malaysia now has several district cooling systems, including its largest one
in Cyberjaya, a town with a science park in the west coast state of
Selangor. That system, called the Megajana District Cooling System, was
built by ENGIE and Malaysia's Pendinginan Megajana Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of
tech hub enabler Cyberview Sdn Bhd.

Since 2012, when the system's second district cooling plant was completed,
it has helped the town to reap the equivalent of 8.2 gigawatt hours in
electricity savings and avoid 4,100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
ENGIE has also provided insights on the Malaysian district cooling market to
IRDA.

Pierre Cheyron, chief executive of ENGIE Services Asia-Pacific, said:
"Climate change has accelerated the pace at which Asia Pacific countries
have adopted low-carbon solutions. Our district cooling system demonstrates
innovative green technology to support Cyberjaya as a model for a
sustainable and green township."

Overcoming barriers

Still, there are several barriers to the adoption of district energy in
Iskandar and elsewhere in Malaysia.

"While IRDA has always encouraged developers to use green technology, there
is no specific body to regulate the development of district energy. Such
systems also involve high capital expenditure," said IRDA chief executive
Ismail Ibrahim.

"Moreover, there are no specific acts or regulations applicable to district
energy in Malaysia. Local policies therefore need to be established
regarding planning permissions, connection policies, fixing of tariffs,
incentives, and promotion and capacity building," he added.

Mark Radka, chief of the Energy and Climate Branch at UN Environment, added
that other obstacles include a lack of funding for early-stage assessments
of projects, and a lack of awareness about district cooling systems'
benefits and innovative business models that incorporate them.

"State-level, national and international best practices on district cooling
technologies, business models, policies and regulations need to be
transferred to new projects in Iskandar. UN Environment and IRDA's
collaboration will ensure that such global best practices are shared
effectively and lead to concrete projects and policies," he said.

The planning guidelines in the works will make it clear to master planners
and developers when district cooling should be considered, and recommend
best practices for its development. These guidelines will be applicable to
Iskandar at first but could be adjusted for other regions in the country
later.

"This work will adapt successful international planning guidelines to the
Malaysian context and include land requirements for energy plants, best
practice capacity and type of thermal storage, as well as information on
planning for and delivering the integration of renewable technologies and
third party access," said Lily Riahi, advisor on Sustainable Energy in
Cities to UN Environment.

The District Energy in Cities Initiative will also help IRDA to explore
international funding opportunities to finance and support local district
cooling studies, energy master planning and policy development.

IRDA, for its part, will establish a networking taskforce to help diverse
stakeholders share their experiences and encourage the use of district
energy systems. UN Environment and the initiative's members will participate
and help to identify and promote new policies and regulations such as tariff
methodologies and regulations, and the fair incorporation of district
cooling into building certificates.

A tool to fight climate change

Sedenak, a small town just outside the city of Johor Bahru in the southern
state of Johor, will be the first test of the partnership between IRDA and
the District Energy in Cities Initiative. About 700 acres in Sedenak will be
developed into a data centre similar to Selangor's Cyberjaya, and IRDA plans
to use district cooling to reduce its electricity use.

"The data centre's expected electricity usage is about 600 megawatts, and
district cooling could reduce that by up to 35 per cent. We're looking at
alternative energy sources from biomass and waste-to-energy for district
cooling," said Ismail.

Radka added that the initiative will ensure that the data centre's
developers have access to international best practices and examples gleaned
from the district cooling of data centres in Helsinki, China and other
countries, as well as ENGIE's Megajana system.

The Sedenak project could set the stage for similar deployments in Iskandar
and beyond. "The rapid development of commercial centres and industrial
parks in Iskandar will create a huge demand for cooling and heating.
Centralised heating and cooling through district energy systems will
significantly decrease their energy usage and increase cost savings," said
Ismail.

According to a 2013 report by the Asian Development Bank, Malaysia could
triple the scale of its district cooling industry to a built-up capacity of
575,000 refrigerant tonnes, the equivalent cooling load of up to 12 million
square metres of commercial floor space. With the pace of Malaysia's real
estate market growth, and the numerous successful district cooling systems
being commissioned across the country, this potential could be even higher.

District energy systems could help Malaysia to achieve its Paris Agreement
pledge to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 45 percent by 2030, and cut 32
million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2020.

As Riahi put it: "District energy is not a new idea, but it has found new
relevance in a world seeking practical solutions for the transition to clean
energy and climate change, by simultaneously reducing emissions and boosting
the uptake of renewables."

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.eco-business.com/news/keeping-it-cool-malaysia-looks-to-district-
energy-systems/

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com