District cooling systems for mega projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

In marching towards sustainable development after 30 years of civil war, Sri Lanka is currently undergoing a boom time with regard to its construction industry. A number of mega projects are ongoing in the capital city of the country. Thus, managing the high operational costs of these upcoming mega facilities will become a challenging task in near future. Air conditioning is identified as a prominent building facility in terms of high operational costs. The aim of the research is to study the effect of District Cooling Systems (DCS) on the reduction of energy demand arising from the operation of mega facilities and, thus, subsequently reducing the operational costs. A qualitative approach was selected as the research methodology to achieve the research objectives. An expert survey was carried out to identify the dominant enablers of DCS implementation in the country. The expert survey included professionals from multi-disciplinary backgrounds such as investors, HVAC contractors, DCS engineers and facility managers. Furthermore, an in-depth case study was carried out with the intention of validating the potential energy saving with the proposed DCS approach. Six existing large-scale buildings which are located close to each other were selected for the case study. The results showed that the implementation of DCS in Sri Lanka (as an energy conservational approach) has tremendous potential. They showed a 25% reduction in energy demand when maintaining a temperature of 170C. Thus, DCS can be proposed as an effective approach to reducing the operational costs of mega facilities. Furthermore, the adaption of these advanced technologies in infrastructure developments will enhance the attraction of potential international investors to the country.