Growth and energy efficiency in applied products in line with ICAP

The system has to enable the cooling system’s components, which respond to the varying load of the building, to deliver the best efficiency possible.

India Cooling Action Plan is to create a roadmap for sustainable cooling. The climate is constantly changing. Due to this, our constant requirements are evolving in terms of either space cooling or space heating. Space cooling in India is the predominant factor. When it comes to HVAC, it needs to be more moderately-penetrated. It is estimated around 4 to 5 percent penetration, whereas, in a developed country, it could be as high as 60-70 percent. In China, it is close to about 40 to 50 percent. Very few people have the privilege of having a space cooling facility in India.

India’s space cooling per capita consumption in kilowatt hours is only 69 watts as per India’s cooling action plan. In other developing or developed countries, it is far higher. As the urbanisation pace of  the last decade went high, it is evident that the cooling requirement has increased. The Cooling Action Plan was introduced in 2017. We are looking at a 4.5 times growth in energy consumption as far as India’s cooling demand is concerned with the twenty-year horizon. From close to around 135 terawatt hours, it is going to become 585 TWH.

Further, India has a very stiff target to meet in terms of net zero. Our Prime Minister, Mr. Modi has recently concluded that India will be a net zero country by 2070. This indicates the challenge of meeting the cooling demand with the increased power consumption. Moreover, there lies the challenge of becoming a net zero country by 2070.

A few things will have to be done by the industry. There are broadly two types of cooling in the building space. These are commercials and light commercials. An ample commercial space, a hospital or a large hotel, and cooling for domestic purposes is considered residential cooling.

The government is trying to ensure that the energy levels are being taken to the next level in domestic cooling. However, the current focus is on commercial cooling, which is close to about 20 percent. The electrical chillers, VRF systems and packaged products form a large part of the requirement. This business’s growth potential is about five times in the next twenty years. For VRF systems, about 13 times growth is envisaged. Hence, both are pretty significant. With the space cooling requirement in commercial business growing, energy consumption would also increase. Sustainable development is one of the potential options to keep energy consumption in check. We have witnessed urbanisation and growth in building infrastructure. With this, the cooling requirement has also been raised. The element of improved building materials and passive and sustainable design would help create an environment where the cooling requirement is less. The second important factor is the equipment that gets into a building. The equipment needs to be more efficient than what is being offered currently.

ECBC was introduced sometime in 2007, and since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds. There has been a great push by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to raise the bar over the years. A total increase in energy efficiency requirement of 10-12 percent has happened from the time it was introduced. The significance of this is to be considered while discussing the commercial HVAC products industry and the typical building load at which the product operates. Some studies have revealed a mismatch between the loads at which the building works versus the load at which the chiller operates. The cooling equipment that gets into a building has to respond to the load of the building as the load always keeps on varying. This depends on internal/external heat load, time of the day, season, wet bulb temp, etc. The equipment has to be geared enough to respond to this varying load and adjust its output suitably. This will enable the building to deliver the best efficiency; otherwise, the building will always be inefficient.

Over the last fifteen years, we have seen rapid adoption of variable frequency drive-based chillers that deliver excellent efficiency in part load conditions. Because of that, the overall building efficiency has gone up considerably. The biggest challenge is to create an overarching control system. The system has to enable the cooling system’s components, which respond to the varying load of the building, to deliver the best efficiency possible.

There has also been a constant evolution of technology for a decade. Products launched have either more efficient compressors or heat exchangers. This is to deliver better efficiency than what was available previously. Recently, there have been product launches that provide COP greater than 7. This has only happened because of the industry leader in pushing the envelope.

The third most important factor is the transition of refrigerant. Let’s look at the change in the refrigerant that happened in the last 20 years. The beginning of the 21st century was mostly HCFC-based products; then, products were designed for HFC-based refrigerants. HFO-based products are currently gaining traction and have almost negligible global warming and zero ozone-depleting potential. The scenario will change in the future, and the decision will be more on HFO-based products. The Kigali amendment also calls for a gradual reduction of HFC-based products. It has been signed and agreed upon by different participating countries.

The government has done a tremendous job by introducing energy consumption codes and mandates. The adaptation of high-efficiency products would bring down the energy consumption of the equipment. This would help create a balance between the growth in consumption and the energy consumption of the equipment.

As mentioned earlier, an integrated building design approach is required. In a building air-conditioned with commercial cooling systems, there are components like a pump, a cooling tower and Air handling units besides the chiller. Best efficiency at any load condition of the building can be attained through properly integrating a plant manager or chiller plant optimiser. In Singapore, such an initiative has already been seen. The matter must be about efficiency at the system level and not the individual equipment level.

For a developing country like India, the Cooling Action plan, coupled with codes and mandates, augurs well for the changing urban landscape and rapid infrastructural development.