French firm invests in PH cooling plant

MANILA, Philippines–French company GDF Suez, through its subsidiary Cofely Philippines, has partnered with Cyberzone Properties Inc. (CPI), a unit of Filinvest Land.Inc., to develop a district cooling system that will translate to huge energy savings with less impact on the environment.

The French firm has formalized its intention to form a joint venture company with CPI by investing 24 million euros ($26 million) for a 35-megawatt (MW) district cooling system at Northgate Cyberzone in Muntinlupa City, GDF Suez said in a statement posted on its web site.

“This agreement was signed on the occasion of the visit of the French President François Hollande in the Philippines,” GDF Suez said.

Hollande recently visited the country to push efforts toward mitigating the impact of climate change.

In a district cooling system, water is chilled in a treatment plant and distributed via pipes to several office, industrial, and residential buildings before being funneled back to the plant in a closed circuit. The system could run on its own electricity, enabling big savings on power bills for air conditioning. It is seen to be more environmentally friendly than conventional cooling.

GDF Suez said the project would be the first of its kind in the Philippines. It consists of a centralized chilled water plant supplying 15 buildings, totaling 390,000 square meters, owned by CPI.

Cofely Philippines will be project manager during the construction period and the operation and maintenance provider under a 20-year contract.

“Thanks to this project, GDF Suez enters the energy market in the Philippines. It is fully in line with GDF Suez development in energy services in this area, which includes the acquisition in 2014 of Keppel FMO in Singapore and the acquisition in 2012 of the urban cooling network of Cyberjaya in Malaysia,” GDF Suez said.

Northgate Cyberzone is registered as an IT zone designed to host offices engaged in business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, education, learning and firm, software design and multimedia, call centers, e-commerce, banking and financial services.

GDF SUEZ is engaged in independent power production, liquefied natural gas, renewable energy and energy efficiency services. It is listed on the Paris and Brussels stock exchanges.