The Singapore Engineer February 2020

PROJECT APPLICATION

CHILLER PLANT RETROFIT HELPS MALAYSIA’S MEGA COMPLEX CUT

ANNUAL ENERGY AND OPERATIONAL COSTS Rising u li es costs and sustainability issues were key drivers behind the decision to overhaul the original cooling system.

An exterior overview of Sunway Pyramid Mall.

Sunway Pyramid Mall is a themed shopping and entertainment mall situated in Sunway City, Selangor, Malaysia. The five-level mega complex houses more than 1000 outlets, with a wide variety of dining, fashion and specialty offerings, in addi on to a 12-screen cineplex, an indoor ice-ska ng rink and a bowling alley. Since its opening in 1997, the mall has gone through two major expansions. It now has a total retail floor area of nearly 400,000 m2.

Consis ng of a central chilled water plant with eight units of water-cooled chillers, the exis ng system was designed without adequate buffer and the pumps were over-taxed as a result.

An internal energy audit further highlighted the inefficiencies of the poorly designed system. The overall plant room efficiency registered only in the 1.10 - 1.20 kW/TR range, and the ageing chillers were unable to chill water to the intended temperature efficiently.

Incen ves from the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia further bolstered the management’s decision to phase out the inefficient chillers.

Under the SAVE Program, Sunway Pyramid could receive a rebate of about USD 430,000 to offset the purchase of eight new energy-efficient chillers, each able to achieve 34

THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER February 2020

The indoor ice-ska ng rink within the mall.

0.54 kW/TR or less. This allowed the management to reduce the project payback period to 4.3 years, instead of 4.8 years.

Op mising the built environment Sunway Pyramid awarded the contract to Johnson Controls, a global technology provider in building technologies and solu ons.

In its search for a replacement solu on, Sunway Pyramid had s pulated several criteria: