TropEco Sustainable Campuses Energy Campus District Cooling (CDC) System - Averting an Energy Crisis
Campus District Cooling (CDC) System - Averting an Energy Crisis
- Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in Marine Science
- Courses
- Future Students
- Current Students
- Research and Teaching
- Partners and Community
- About JCU
- Reputation and Experience
- Celebrating 50 Years
- Academy
- ALTAR
- Anton Breinl Research Centre
- Agriculture Technology and Adoption Centre
- Living on Campus
- Advanced Prawn Breeding Research Hub
- Advanced Analytical Centre
- Applying to JCU
- Alumni
- AMHHEC
- JCU Aquaculture Solutions
- AusAsian Mental Health Research Group
- ARCSTA
- Area 61
- Association of Australian University Secretaries
- Australian/NZ Students
- Australian Lions Stinger Research
- Boating and Diving
- JCU-CSIRO Partnership
- Employability Edge
- Career Ready Plan
- Australian Tropical Herbarium
- Careers at JCU
- Careers and Employability
- Australian Quantum & Classical Transport Physics Group
- Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology
- CITBA
- Chancellery
- CMT
- CASE
- College of Business, Law and Governance
- College of Healthcare Sciences
- WHOCC for N&M Education and Research
- College of Medicine and Dentistry
- College of Science and Engineering
- CPHMVS
- COVID-19 Advice
- Centre for Disaster Solutions
- CSTFA
- Cyclone Testing Station
- The Centre for Disaster Studies
- Daintree Rainforest Observatory
- Diploma of Higher Education
- Discover Nature at JCU
- Research Division
- Services and Resources Division
- Education Division
- Division of Tropical Environments and Societies
- Division of Tropical Health and Medicine
- Economic Geology Research Centre
- Elite Athletes
- eResearch
- ERC
- Estate
- Financial and Business Services Office
- Fletcherview
- Foundation for Australian Literary Studies
- Gender Equity Action and Research
- GetReady4Uni
- Give to JCU
- Governance
- Information for JCU Cairns Graduates
- Graduate Research School
- Graduation
- Indigenous Education and Research Centre
- Indigenous Engagement
- Indigenous Legal Needs Project
- Inherent Requirements
- IsoTropics Geochemistry Lab
- IT Services
- International Schools
- International Students
- JCU Connect
- JCU Eduquarium
- JCU Events
- JCU Global Experience
- JCU Ideas Lab
- JCU Job Ready
- JCU Motorsports
- JCU Prizes
- JCU Sport
- JCU Turtle Health Research
- Language and Culture Research Centre
- CEE
- LearnJCU
- Library
- Mabo Decision: 30 years on
- MARF
- Marine Geophysics Laboratory
- New students
- Off-Campus Students
- Office of the Vice Chancellor and President
- Virtual Open Day
- Orpheus
- Outstanding Alumni Awards
- Parents and Partners
- Pathways to university
- Planning for your future
- Placements
- Policy
- PAHL
- Publications
- Professional Experience Placement
- Queensland Research Centre for Peripheral Vascular Disease
- Rapid Assessment Unit
- RDIM
- Researcher Development Portal
- Safety and Wellbeing
- Scholarships
- Contextual Science for Tropical Coastal Ecosystems
- Staff
- State of the Tropics
- Strategic Procurement
- Student Equity and Wellbeing
- Student profiles
- SWIRLnet
- TARL
- TESS
- TREAD
- TropEco
- TQ Maths Hub
- TUDLab
- Unicare Centre and Unicampus Kids
- UAV
- VAVS Home
- Work Health and Safety
- WHOCC for Vector-borne & NTDs
- Media
- Copyright and Terms of Use
- Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine
JCU's award winning Campus District Cooling system is used to efficiently cool the Townsville and Cairns campuses using high efficiency chillers.
In 2008, JCU's Townsville Campus was facing an energy dilemma. It had reached a point where its energy demand was close to that of the available supply. Thus, it could no longer expand its operations without major infrastructure upgrades to the electricity supply or a major rethink of its energy efficiency.
It was identified that air-conditioning was a major consumer of electricity, using close to 60% of the total energy for the campus. Each building had its own air-conditioning plants, and many of these were inefficient, outdated and in need of replacement.
Instead of upgrading the electricity infrastructure to meet the growing demand, the University decided to pursue energy efficiency as the solution to the growing campus. This was a more sustainable approach and looked at a long term solution for the University.
The CDC system provides chilled water (4oC) to most of JCU's buildings through a network of underground pipes. This chilled water provides highly efficient air conditioning to the buildings it supplies.
The water is cooled at night using large chillers and then stored in a large steel tank measuring 17 metres high and 30 metres in diameter.
JCU's Townsville Campus has the largest CDC tank in the Southern Hemisphere, holding 12.5 million litres of water.
Water is chilled at night for several reasons:
Peak demand
Electricity is charged on both energy consumed and the peak demand. Peak demand is the peak energy use for each month and can increase charges significantly. Traditionally for JCU, peak demand occurs during daytime periods, when lighting, air-conditioning and other power uses are all occurring at the same time. By taking out the air-conditioning portion of this, the daytime peak demand is reduced significantly (up to 40%).
Cooler temperatures
Cooler night time temperatures mean the chillers don't need to work as hard to chill the water than during the day, resulting in efficiency gains.
Due to the success of the Townsville system, a 9ML tank and central cooling system were installed in Cairns in 2012. Many of the lessons learned from the Townsville CDC system were used to improve the efficiency and usability of the Cairns system.
These systems have helped to reduce JCU’s electricity costs by over $3 million per year.