Seven buildings in Tampines begin using shared cooling system

It will help to cut emissions, save energy and enhance efficiency: SP Group

- Chin Hui Shan

A shared cooling system connecting seven buildings in Tampines began operations in early March, and talks are under way to bring more neighbouring buildings into the network.

Tampines is Singapore's first town centre to be retrofitted with this system. The project is the first of its kind to be built on already developed land.

In this distributed district cooling network, which will slash the environmental cost of air-conditioning, some buildings in the town centre have taken over the cooling load for others.

Such a shared system will help to cut carbon emissions, save energy and enhance efficiency through economies of scale, said SP Group, which built and operates the system, on March 14.

Mr S. Harsha, managing director for sustainable energy solutions at SP Group, said: "For years, we have understood the crucial role air-conditioning plays in our tropical climate, but traditional in-building air-conditioning systems, especially the ones in older buildings, are usually less efficient and designed with standby capacity.

"These buildings consume vast amounts of energy for cooling, and many of them will be around for years to come. As we strive to reduce our carbon footprint and build a greener Singapore, we need to implement a more sustainable cooling solution that can be adapted for existing buildings."