Publication: Feasibility study of cool storage airconditioning for an office commercial building in Malaysia
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Date
2002-03-01
Authors
Lee, Kim Fang
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Abstract
This project undertakes to study the feasibility of Thermal Storage System for
air-conditioning system in Malaysia. Thermal storage system is well established in
countries such as United States of America, Canada, Japan and Taiwan as a load
management technique. It has demonstrated its advantage of efficient load management
of electricity companies and has helped to save millions of dollars in power plant costs
over the years. This has resulted in lower electricity bills for their customers.
For the thermal storage system, the daily cooling load profile is obtained. The
load leveling strategies is implemented for this design. The control strategy of
proportional constant control is modified to suit the design. The thermal storage is
selected to accommodate the cooling load. Duct design and piping layout is designed
based on the cooling load. The ice harvester, storage tank, air-handling unit and pumps
are selected based on the storage system. A conventional air-conditioning system was
also designed for the same premises for the purpose of comparison between the two
systems. The cost of the equipment selected for both thermal storage system and
conventional system is evaluated. Comparison on utility usage is also calculated.
Studies carried out for an office building in Malaysia in respect of technical
feasibility as well as financially viability found that the present electricity tariff structure
is not suitable for implementation of ice storage system for new project or retrofitted.
With the current electricity tariff structure, it would require approximately 15 years to
recover the cost of the ice storage system in Singapore compared to 5 years in Taiwan.
However, the study shows that the ice storage system helps to shift about 40.3% to
100% of peak period electricity to off peak period depending on the level of storage that
is employed. Thus, to encourage the use of this ice storage system in Malaysia, further
adjustment have to be made to the present tariff rate structure by increasing the
percentage differential in peak and off peak rates to about 55% and also by increasing
the demand charges by 25%.Malaysia’s electricity tariff rates can be structured closer to that of Taiwan’s to
attract and encourage the installation of the ice storage system which would most likely
to be the appropriate course of action to tame the escalating power costs.