Briefs: Energy-efficient district cooling in Paris

The chilled-water urban cooling network in Paris, run by Climespace is made up of 6 plants and chilled water storage systems, with a 250 MW total refrigerating capacity and distribution temperatures from 0.5°C-4°C. Two different technical solutions are used: open cooling towers with condensers in direct contact with the cooling loops, are used at the Opera, Etoile and Halles plants. The other plants (Bercy, Canada, Palais de Tokyo) are all situated alongside the River Seine and use open cooling circuits with pumped river water. Intermediate exchangers allow for physical separation between the condenser-water loop and the Seine-water loop. Climespace developed two networks: the "Centre" network, comprising five of the chilled-water production plants and the "Tour Maubourg" storage tank, and the smaller "Bercy" network, only using water from the 44 MW "Bercy" plant. Measurements were carried out on separate cooling plants in order to compare their COPs with those of the Paris network. The results show that the latter network is substantially more energy-efficient (with COPs from 3.2-4) than separate cooling plants (COP of 1.97). Revue Générale du Froid et du Conditionnement d'Air, September 2010