Energy and Economic Analyses of District Cooling Ice Thermal Storage Systems in Malaysia

Abstract

As a result of rapid economic growth in Malaysia, usage of air-conditioning equipments has become a necessity for household, shopping complexes and offices.Constitute approximately 60 to 70 percents of total electricity usage in commercialbuildings; air conditioning systems have posed challenges to Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) engineers anddesigners to find solutions to minimize usage of air-conditioning energy and costswithout sacrificing the thermal comfort.This dissertation focuses on selecting and carrying out economic analyses on the typeof air-conditioning systems that provides minimum costs for the same coolingconditions. Three types of air-conditioning system were used for comparison, districtcooling ice thermal storage system or DCSITSS (full and partial storage),conventional chillers, and package unit systems. Due to current governmentincentives by offering a cheaper electricity tariff and no maximum demand charge atnight (off-peak period), DCSITSS partial storage system proves to be the mosteconomical air conditioning system. A set of chilled water supply tariff was alsodetermined and the results reflect that not only DCSITSS partial storage plant can be commercialised in Malaysia but also its economic gains were quite attractive as thecapacity of DCSITSS plant increases