Keppel has secured its first cooling-as-a-service contract (CaaS) contract from Nucleus Office Parks (NOP), an operating platform of fully-owned Blackstone offices in India.
The group will work with Daikin Airconditioning India to retrofit and optimise the 4,300-refrigeration ton chiller plant system at Exora Business Park. Keppel will operate the system thereafter for 10 years.
Exora Business Park is a Grade A business park located on Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road. The park spans some 2.1 million sq ft across three commercial towers. The park’s chiller plant will be connected to and monitored in real-time from Keppel’s smart Operations Nerve Centre (ONC) in Singapore.
According to Keppel, the system is expected to improve the park’s energy efficiency, enhance operational cost savings and lower its carbon footprint by over 6,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of planting 600,000 new trees.
“India’s industrial and commercial sectors are expanding rapidly. Factories, IT parks, data centers, and large commercial complexes require efficient cooling to maintain operations. This creates significant demand for innovative and cost-effective cooling solutions,” says Cindy Lim, CEO of Keppel’s infrastructure division.
“Our proprietary cooling solutions are proven to help our partners and clients achieve energy and cost savings, as well as sustainability outcomes, thus we are confident that we will be able to replicate our success in more projects across India,” she adds.
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“The partnership with Keppel cooling system signifies a key milestone in our commitment to operational sustainability. We are pleased to bring together Daikin and Keppel for this cutting-edge technology, which is set to become an industry benchmark in India. The project is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2025, contributing to NOP's broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals,” says Quaiser Parvez, CEO of NOP.
Partnering with Tata Power
In the same release, Keppel also announced that it will be collaborating with Tata Power to jointly offer CaaS solutions in India. The country is reportedly emerging as one of the most promising markets for CaaS.
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According to the International Energy Agency, India is expected to become the world’s largest consumer of space cooling by 2050, with the country accounting for 28% of total electricity demand and 45% of peak load.
Shares in Keppel closed at $6.38 on Oct 23.
