District cooling technology is advantageous in warm and hot climatic regions, in that chilled water from a central refrigeration plant is delivered through a distribution network to groups of buildings. The technology is most suitable for new urban developments where system design and construction receive much freedom. With a focus on the energy use, this paper outlines an energy modeling methodology and decision approach to derive the most desirable scheme for a given project. The process involves a series of building design load computation, dynamic simulation, and plant energy consumption analyses for different phases of development. A proposed scheme for the South East Kowloon Development Project in Hong Kong is quoted as an example to illustrate the approach.

T.T. Chow, K.F. Fong, A.L.S. Chan, R. Yau, W.H. Au, V. Cheng, Energy modelling of district cooling system for new urban development, Energy and Buildings, Volume 36, Issue 11, November 2004, Pages 1153-1162, ISSN 0378-7788, 10.1016/j.enbuild.2004.04.002.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778804001410)