Grundfos partners with Barghest Building Performance to meet Southeast Asia’s sustainable cooling needs

Singapore, July 14, 2021: Grundfos, a global leader in advanced pump solutions and water technology, and Barghest Building Performance (BBP), a Singapore-based energy efficiency technology provider, have signed a memorandum of understanding to deliver and scale an innovative energy-efficient digital solution across Southeast Asia. The solution can help reduce energy consumption of cooling systems by up to 40%, meeting the region’s urgent need for sustainable cooling solutions.

The novel solution focuses on reducing the energy consumption of commercial and industrial climate control systems. Also known as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, it currently represents one of the world’s most important sources of greenhouse gas emissions. In Southeast Asia, rising electricity demand from cooling alone is projected to require around 200 gigawatts of additional generation capacity by 2040, and cooling could be responsible for as much as 30% share in the region’s peak electricity demand[1].

Conventional systems often use up a high level of energy due to issues such as over-pumping to compensate for discrepancies between the chilled water supply and return temperatures. In addition, they have the tendency to run at constant speed and pressure throughout its operations, regardless of fluctuating cooling demands. The systems’ high energy consumption ultimately contributes to greater carbon emissions, driving climate change.

Through leveraging automation technology, remote monitoring, and Internet of Things, the solution ensures the HVAC system operates in optimised conditions at any time, by intuitively regulating the interactions between the various parts within the system. This minimises unnecessary energy use, and in turn helps customers reduce their environmental impact. Grundfos and BBP will look to scale this across Southeast Asia, focusing on Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Both recognised as leaders in driving energy-efficient solutions, the partnership brings together Grundfos’ application expertise, global presence, and ambition of creating disruptive digital offerings, with BBP’s patented technology, and implementation capability. BBP’s strong track record includes some of the world’s most prominent industrial and commercial real estate brands, ranging from data centres, hospitality, industrial, office, and retail.

Fredrik Östbye, Group Vice President, Head of FutureLab, Grundfos, said, “Southeast Asia is undergoing rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and cooling and ventilation in commercial and industrial buildings will only play a bigger role as we move into the future. However, conventional cooling is not sustainable in today’s climate crisis. With sustainability being a very key part of Grundfos’ DNA, this partnership demonstrates our commitment to create cleaner and more energy efficient technologies to enable our customers to reduce their energy consumption and limit their impact on the environment.”

As a first step, the two companies are focusing on reducing barriers in product adoption and scalability, by digitalising the identification, evaluation, and onboarding of customers who are interested in reducing their energy consumption and environmental impact.

Commenting on the partnership, Poyan Rajamand, Co-founder, BPP, said, “Global temperatures have been on the rise, and this has cast a spotlight on the need to provide cooling in cities without overburdening urban power grids and further contributing to climate change. We see great synergy between the missions of BPP and Grundfos, which is to bring greater energy efficiency in solutions serving an increasingly urbanised world, and so we are excited to be driving the forefront of sustainable cooling for the commercial and industrial building sector.”

Source: [1] International Energy Agency (November 2019). The Future of cooling in Southeast Asia.