Grundfos and Barghest Building Performance (BBP), a Singapore-based energy efficiency technology provider, have signed a memorandum of understanding to deliver and scale an energy-efficient digital solution across South East Asia. The solution is said to help reduce energy consumption of cooling systems by up to 40%, meeting the region’s need for sustainable cooling solutions.
The solution focuses on reducing the energy consumption of commercial and industrial climate control systems. Also known as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, it currently represents one of the world’s most important sources of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the International Energy Agency’s The Future of Cooling in Southeast Asia report, in South East Asia, rising electricity demand from cooling alone is projected to require around 200GW of additional generation capacity by 2040, and cooling could be responsible for as much as 30% share in the region’s peak electricity demand.
Conventional systems often use up a high level of energy due to issues such as over-pumping to compensate for discrepancies between the chilled water supply and return temperatures. In addition, they have the tendency to run at constant speed and pressure throughout its operation, regardless of fluctuating cooling demands. The systems’ high energy consumption ultimately contributes to greater carbon emissions, driving climate change.
Through leveraging automation technology, remote monitoring and the Internet of Things (IoT), the solution ensures the HVAC system operates in optimised conditions at any time, by intuitively regulating the interactions between the various parts within the system. This minimises unnecessary energy use, and in turn helps customers reduce their environmental impact. Grundfos and BBP will look to scale this across South East Asia, focusing on Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia.
Furthermore, the partnership brings together Grundfos’ application expertise, global presence, and ambition of creating disruptive digital offerings, with BBP’s technology, and implementation capability.
Fredrik Östbye, group vice-president, head of FutureLab, Grundfos, commented: “South East Asia is undergoing rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and cooling and ventilation in commercial and industrial buildings will only play a bigger role as we move into the future. However, conventional cooling is not sustainable in today’s climate crisis. With sustainability being a very key part of Grundfos’ DNA, this partnership demonstrates our commitment to create cleaner and more energy efficient technologies to enable our customers to reduce their energy consumption and limit their impact on the environment.”
As a first step, the two companies are focusing on reducing barriers in product adoption and scalability, by digitalising the identification, evaluation, and onboarding of customers who are interested in reducing their energy consumption and environmental impact.
Commenting on the partnership, Poyan Rajamand, co-founder of BBP, said: “Global temperatures have been on the rise, and this has cast a spotlight on the need to provide cooling in cities without overburdening urban power grids and further contributing to climate change. We see great synergy between the missions of BBP and Grundfos, which is to bring greater energy efficiency in solutions serving an increasingly urbanised world, and so we are excited to be driving the forefront of sustainable cooling for the commercial and industrial building sector.”
