Que: Can you very briefly explain what district cooling is and what are its specific advantages over other traditional cooling methods?

Ans: District Cooling refers to the production of cooling energy (chilled water) in a centralised cooling plant and its distribution to buildings through a network of insulated chilled water pipelines.

As a developer, incorporating district cooling or centralised cooling in the project masterplan, through an independent utility block or central basement plant, results in highly efficient cooling system (longer lifecycle & economies of scale) while providing for cost savings from reduced power demand and energy consumption. Further, the possibility of sourcing clean/green power for cooling, grey water for heat rejection etc. results in a sustainable cooling solution that can provide additional green building rating points to the masterplan. Some benefits of district cooling are:

•Up to 40 percent lower installed cooling capacity reducing the initial investment and spreading it over a longer period of time due to longer asset useful life;
•Up to 50 percent lower power demand for cooling and reduced operational and maintenance costs;
•Greater reliability and efficiency in cooling operations from optimised plant room design and high level of digitisation/automation of equipment;
•Approach cooling in a sustainable manner (green/clean power, grey water use, eliminate refrigerant leaks, enhance energy efficiency etc.) with a potential of up to 50 percent reduced CO2 emissions to gain additional green rating points;
•Freed up basement/terrace area occupied by HVAC equipment for other uses and/or improve aesthetics of building (flexible building design)

Que: How does Tabreed's vision sync with the energy transition and urban sustainability goals of India?

Ans: District Cooling lends itself to the integration of multiple technologies, through a platform-based approach, increasing circularity of resource use. For example, District Cooling can reduce and, in some cases, eliminate dependence on the grid by powering the system through a combination or following energy sources - solar/wind energy, natural gas through City Gas Distribution (CGD) networks, and waste energy from Waste-to-Energy (W2E) plants. For the both CGD and W2E, DCS provides anchor demand to lend viability to construction and operations of CGD and W2E. This, in turn, maximises the potential of diversification towards cleaner sources of power, while also promoting recycling/reuse of resources including addressing challenges around solid waste disposal. Similarly, District Cooling reduces dependence on potable water by using treated sewage effluent from Sewage Treatment Plants, which would otherwise be disposed into freshwater rivers and lakes.

District Cooling can help unlock a number of environmental benefits including reduction of power demand from aggregation benefits, reduced power consumption and associated emissions due to improved efficiency, usage of refrigerants with low Global Warming Potential compared to conventional systems. All of this aids country’s commitments 1) to reduce cooling demand by 20-25 percent and enhance energy efficiency by 25-40 percent by 2037-38 under the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), 2) to complete 85 percent of the phase down of HFCs by 2047 towards the Kigali Amendment, 3) to reduce emissions intensity by 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 as per the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), and 4) improve the quality of life through better infrastructure, services and a sustainable environment through the Smart Cities’ Missions.

To explain further, District Cooling systems can reduce peak power demand and associated capex towards power infrastructure by lowering the required installed capacity. District Cooling systems when combined with thermal energy storage (TES) solutions, further shave peak loads. TES also enables utilisation of preferential electricity tariffs by recharging of the tanks at night/off-peak hours. Additionally, TES systems help address concerns around variability in renewable power generation and demand, and are far more technically viable and cost-effective compared to Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

Que: Tabreed has recently established its first CaaS (Cooling-as-a-Service) project in India with Tata Realty. Could you elaborate more about this tie-up and the expected outcome?

Ans: Tabreed has a strategic partnership with Tata Realty as a part of which in 2023, Tabreed signed a 30-year concession with Tata Intellion Park in Gurugram to design, build, own and operate sustainable and efficient cooling infrastructure by implementing its first Cooling as a Service (CaaS) project in India.

The concession moves away from the regular market practice where real estate developers own and operate their cooling assets through facility management arrangements. Tabreed will instead acquire existing cooling assets and also undertake expansion of future cooling requirements, and provide long-term, service level agreement (SLA)-based cooling services with well-defined parameters to improve energy efficiency, asset longevity, system reliability and reduce life cycle costs of cooling for tenants.

In addition to the CaaS project at Intellion Park, Tabreed is in advanced conversations with Tata Realty’s projects in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Through demonstrating the value of CaaS, Tabreed hopes to pave the way for more rapid adoption of District Cooling in India and inspire more sustainable cooling solutions for the Indian real estate sector.

Que: Can you elaborate on the partnership with Plaksha University? How does this collaboration align with Tabreed's focus on innovation and education?

Ans: The collaboration with Plaksha is part of the broader partnership between Tabreed India and IFC’s award-winning TechEmerge Program that aims to accelerate market adoption of innovative cooling technologies through the implementation of grant-funded pilots and innovative business models. As a technology and OEM-agnostic District Cooling utility, Tabreed has since its inception focused on innovation to ensure that its DC plant designs are operationally efficient and increase asset longevity, taking lifecycle costs into view.

Tabreed and Plaksha University are testing the integration of innovative phase change material (PCM)-based thermal energy storage with solar energy in a hostel building with the aim to decarbonise residential cooling energy consumption and minimise grid reliance. This is being executed through Cooling as a Service (CaaS) contract which is the first-of-its-kind for a university campus in South Asia. Besides research on thermal storage, Plaksha will experiment with consumption-based billing to foster behavioural change among users in the hostel.

The Plaksha pilot will demonstrate how the dual problem of variability in renewable power generation and incremental night-time cooling demand can be addressed to minimise the need for conventional, more expensive, and less environment-friendly battery storage systems, thus bringing a sustainable vision for grid-independent buildings, campuses or even townships one step closer.

Que: What opportunities do you see for district cooling in partnership with pan-India real estate developers, particularly in the green building segment?

Ans: Based on the current Grade A building stock of 6 leading cities in India (namely Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune), the existing/operational cooling demand is approximately 2.5 million Refrigerant Tons (RT) in installed capacity with an estimated investment in HVAC equipment to the tune of USD 4.4 billion. By 2030, the demand is likely to go up to 3.3 million RT requiring a total investment of USD 5.9 billion, presenting a huge opportunity for real estate developers to adopt District Cooling to maximise savings.

After China, India has the largest LEED certified Green Buildings. Green certified projects while focusing on low-carbon building envelope and optimum HVAC system design, more often than not do not meet design efficiency parameters as a result of poor operations and maintenance. Given the lack of green certification practices for operations or annual energy audits to retain such certification, a vast majority of Green Buildings are not incentivised to stay green. However, with the strong focus on ESG performance, and rising demand for cooling which already accounts for approximately 70 percent of all energy consumption within buildings, sustainable cooling approaches such as District Cooling are coming to the fore as leading solutions.

Through right sizing cooling demand and loads, transfer of design, execution and project risk to a utility like Tabreed, commissioning and operations in line with design intent along with innovative financing and high quality, reliable, guaranteed, locked-in, long-term O&M costs, District Cooling can more rapidly minimise environmental burden for both energy efficient retrofits and greenfield developments. District Cooling is increasingly being seen as a lever to aid in long term decarbonisation of the real estate sector and to move communities more rapidly towards net-zero goals.

Que: Tabreed's district cooling systems contributed to eliminating 1.5 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2023. Can you elaborate on the technologies or strategies that enable such outcomes?

Ans: Currently, Tabreed supplies 1.3 million Refrigerant Tons (RT) of cooling capacity 91 plants spread across 6 countries – UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt and India – eliminating 1.5 million tons of CO2 emissions annually through multiple sustainability measures, our best-in-class reliability-centred operations and management strategy, pursuit of new and innovative technologies.

As a cooling utility, Tabreed is both technology and OEM agonistic and generally considers investing in and implementing fit for purpose solutions basis the unique characteristics of each project. From that standpoint, innovation for us is across a number of areas:

•Within our existing portfolio of assets, we have a number of digitisation initiatives including the adoption of AI to enhance weather and demand forecasting and increase automation to enable remote operations. Other initiatives include the testing nanoparticles to enhance heat transfer capabilities in a District Cooling plant in Khalifa City, and the use of geothermal energy powering Tabreed’s new district cooling plant in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City
•For new greenfield developments, and especially in India, we are increasingly looking at an end-to-end approach where initial focus is on working alongside real estate developers to right size the required cooling capacity by leveraging Tabreed’s historical data for given end-use types, planning on-site low or secondary side cooling solutions, and thereafter considering best in class district cooling technologies for more optimal or right sized cooling demand. As already highlighted, we constantly look to implement alternative approaches for heat rejection including where possible through geo-thermal energy.
•In parallel and in partnership with IFC’s TechEmerge initiative we are now in the process of setting up a disruptive cooling technologies innovation accelerator for India to enable more rapid market adoption of global innovation across a variety of end use requirements.

Que: What is your vision for Tabreed India over the next five years? Are there any new markets or industries that you are particularly excited to explore?

Ans: District Cooling has the potential to meet the rapidly growing cooling demand of urban areas far more efficiently than traditional systems, while addressing interconnected challenges such as water stress, waste management, and air and water pollution. It is imperative that all stakeholders work collaboratively to make District Cooling the default choice for sustainable cooling, particularly in the following ways:

•Government: A long-term, systems-based approach is needed to analyse cooling demand in conjunction with power needs, costs, and environmental considerations. Identifying high-density clusters and introducing mandates for sustainable cooling will be critical.
•Developers and Private Sector: Greater awareness is required regarding the risks of inaction and the long-term benefits of adopting sustainable technologies and business models.
•Consumers: Empowering consumers to demand sustainable cooling solutions is essential for accelerating adoption.

Tabreed remains optimistic about the potential of District Cooling and the growing recognition of its value across all stakeholder groups. For example, the programme by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and World Bank on Alleviating Heat stress by Enhancing production of Affordable cooling Devices (AHEAD) positions cooling as a national priority area and the District Cooling Guidelines by the Bureau of Energy (BEE) which gives an impetus to sustainable cooling. While our current focus has been on the commercial Grade A office building segment, we are actively exploring opportunities in new sectors such as residential, industrial clusters, cold chain, logistics and warehousing. For instance, Tabreed’s recent success in winning the tender for Hyderabad Pharma City highlights our ability to meet large-scale, process-driven cooling needs. This milestone bolsters our confidence in expanding to other similar projects across the country, where sustainable cooling can add significant value. Secondly, the partnership with Plaksha University to test an innovative Thermal Energy Storage system with solar power to meet the night-time cooling demand of the campus’ hostel block will help demonstrate a use case to meet the residential sector’s cooling demand through sustainable solutions.

Beyond India, we are engaging with stakeholders in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, where increasing temperatures and heat stress in addition to climatic similarities create strong opportunities for District Cooling adoption. These conversations have been encouraging, reflecting a growing appreciation for the solution across diverse project types.