Converting heat to cool a building
A new Combined Heat and Power (CHP) pilot plant has been commissioned to harness waste heat and convert it to energy to power air-conditioning. The plant is funded by the A*STAR-Ministry of National Development (MND) Green Building Joint Grant call, with Building and Construction Authority (BCA) administering the grant. A*STAR's Experimental Power Grid Centre (EPGC) and Hitachi have been working on a joint verification testing of the CHP control systems, which will control heat and power facilities as the operating point to best minimise costs and energy consumption. The advanced CHP pilot plant explores the integration and control of two systems; utilising existing embedded generation and using excess heat from generators for heating and cooling purposes in air conditioning. When a CHP system is integrated into a building, a generator need not perform at full capacity as excess heat is now used to power air-conditioning. The building will be able to produce and control electrical power, and heating and cooling services required to power air conditioning. An increase in energy efficiency from 36 percent (with just a generator), to 52 percent is estimated with the integrated system. CHP systems are currently not widely adopted in Singapore, and Hitachi said it will commercialise the CHP control systems in 2015 based on the results from the joint research. This is all part of the Building to Grid (B2G) concept, which leverages on a building's capability to generate electricity on its own for the building's needs. The integration of CHP system into the B2G concept enables the building to act as a virtual power plant. Image (by BCA): An overview of the CHP pilot plant Muneerah Bee, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email muneerah@propertyguru.com.sg
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