Danny Chan
Australian company SmartConsult is aiming to change the ownership model for the heating and cooling industry with the launch of cooling and heating as a service (CHAAS).
Under the CHAAS scheme, customers are charged based on the heating and cooling units that an energy centre (heating and AC plant) produces on a monthly basis. SmartConsult says this passes the risk to the energy centre provider and incentivises the supplier to install the most efficient plant possible.
CHAAS is modelled after the pay-per-service cooling initiative known as Cooling as a Service (CaaS), led by not-for-profit Swiss foundation, the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy (BASE), along with the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP).
CaaS is a financial scheme that introduced the concept of servitisation to the cooling industry. It encourages the installation of efficient cooling systems via the delivery of cost-saving financial mechanisms to benefit both building owners and technology providers. The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance recognised CaaS as one of the most innovative new financing instruments in 2019.
SmartConsult has revised the model to include thermal storage, heating and cooling.
“To give the user an incentive to conserve energy, the facility will be encouraged to heat and cool the centre during off-peak periods and or use thermal storage,” says SmartConsult.
“The incentive for the energy centre supplier is that it needs to be in control of the mix of energy sources to deliver the most economic energy flows to the energy user. Therefore the fewer kWh used to power the energy centre compared to the thermal output represents a profit to the energy centre provider.”
When an energy centre is installed, the inputs kWhE and the outputs kWhT are metered separately and the kWhE is paid for by the energy centre owner as part of the agreed per kWhT fees, the company explains.
The electricity cost may be separately priced based on the source – solar and grid may use different rates.
“CHAAS is a great option for large energy users currently using gas and separate chillers who need to retrofit their existing facilities to meet either their corporate social responsibility targets or their current systems are end of life,” says SmartConsult.
“CHAAS is also a great option for green field opportunities.”
SmartConsult is also offering a range of other capital items in the energy centre service contract. These include thermal storage, solar PV, solar PVT, AHU units, design and consulting.
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