VIJAYAWADA: Tabreed India, in collaboration with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, hosted the regional workshop ‘Cooling India’s Cities’ in Vijayawada on Thursday.
The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) signed India’s first Public-Private Partnership concession with Tabreed in 2019 to develop a 20,000 RTs District Cooling System for the government complex area within the planned capital city of Amaravati. However, the project was kept on hold with the change of government in the State.
Now, with the TDP back in the saddle, and the development of Amaravati back on track, Tabreed is hopeful of implementing the project as per the previous agreement. As per the partnership agreement for the concession, Tabreed is committed to designing a facility and network that will deliver electricity savings of up to 50%, providing sustainable cooling services to prestigious buildings such as the High Court, Secretariat and others.
Speaking to mediapersons prior to the workshop, Tabreed India Managing Director Sudheer Perla elaborated on how economical and energy efficient, the district cooling system could be. “It reduces carbon emissions and also cuts short on power consumption to nearly 40%,” he said, while sharing his experience in implementing the district cooling system in the UAE. “India, particularly AP, has vast investment opportunities in this sector,” he said. During the workshop, held as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Tabreed India and GIZ, under the latter’s Energy Efficiency Cooling programme, Sudheer Perla said, “Amaravati’s vision as a greenfield capital balancing environmental stewardship and equitable growth provides the perfect opportunity to implement district cooling to leverage the circularity benefits it can offer.”
The potential case studies they have assessed for the region, including the capital of Amaravati, district cooling presents USD 5 billion investment opportunity through reduced power load and energy consumption.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced Amaravati as a pilot city of District Energy in Cities Initiative in 2019 to provide lessons for the anticipated national District Cooling Hub with the BEE, which is supported by GIZ India.
The State anticipates peak power demand to rise by 57% reaching 19.9 GW by 2029, driven largely by increasing demand for cooling. Piyush Sharma, Energy Advisor, GIZ India, and others also spoke.