Chapter 2.

fm Page 12 Monday, July 29, 2013 2:41 PM

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District Cooling Guide

important that the successful contractors have experience commensurate with the project.
It is not unusual for the specifications to require a contractor to have a minimum of five
years of experience in similar type projects to ensure that costly novice mistakes are not
made. Capital costs of district cooling projects range greatly and are dependent upon local
construction environment and site conditions such as the following:
• Labor rates
• Construction environment (slow or busy period)
• Distance for shipping of equipment
• Permits and fees (franchise fees)
• Local authorities (traffic control, times of construction in city streets)
• Soil conditions (clay, bedrock)
• Quality of equipment and controls (commercial or industrial)
• Availability of materials
• Size of piping in distribution system
• Type of insulation or cathodic protection of piping system
• Type of distribution-system installation (direct buried, tunnel, etc.)
• Depth of bury and restoration of existing conditions (city streets, green areas)
• Below-grade conflict resolutions
• Economies of scale
Sample construction cost-unit pricing is summarized by ASHRAE (2012) and is pro-
vided in Table 2.2; however, the designer is cautioned that cost can vary widely based on
the conditions outlined above. For example, very large chiller plants that have been con-
structed in the Middle East can cost as little as $1250 per ton ($350/kW) while more typical
values for chiller plants are in the $2500 to $3000 range for plants of around 10,000 tons
(35 MW) capacity. In the case of distribution systems, large diameter piping can increase
costs significantly as can urban construction conditions.
Lead time needed to obtain equipment generally determines the time required to build
a DCS. In some cases, lead time on major components in the central plant can be over a
year. Installation time of the distribution system depends, in part, on the routing interfer-
ences with existing utilities. A distribution system in a new industrial park is simpler and
requires less time to install than a system being installed in an established business district.
Consumer Interconnection
The interconnection of the buildings with the distribution system will be a major cost
component of the system that must not be ignored in the planning phase. Consumer inter-
connection costs will vary widely dependant on the type of existing system in the existing
buildings (if any) and the type of building interconnection; direct or indirect. Table 5.1 pro-
vides a summary of the relative merits of direct versus indirection connections. Consumer

Table 2.2 Sample Cost Information (ASHRAE 2012)

Item Cost Range per Unit1 Unit of Measure
Chiller plants (including building, chillers, cooling towers, pumps, $1,800–$3,500
ton (kW) of capacity
piping, and controls) ($500–$1000)
Direct buried distribution piping (includes excavation, piping, $500–$1500
foot (m) of trench length
backfill, surface restoration) (S1500–$5000)
$700–$1500
Distribution system, for buried inaccessible tunnels foot (m) of trench length
($2300–$5000)
$3,500–$15,000
Distribution system, buried walk through tunnels foot (m) of trench length
($11,500–$50,000)
1 Costs include design fees, contingencies, and taxes.

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