Tata Power of India announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tata Power Trading Company Limited, had partnered with Singapore-based Keppel to offer Cooling-as-a-Service, or CaaS, solutions. The deal is apt in the face of rising temperatures across India and the need for cooling that has become increasing amid the rapid strides made by IT parks, data centers, and commercial complexes, which have risen sharply in the expectation of spiking cooling needs in the country.
Understanding Cooling-as-a-Service (CaaS)
Coolings-as-a-Service is an innovative model for business and building owners to access efficient cooling solutions without major upfront investment. It enables users to pay for cooling as an operational expense rather than facing huge capital costs of infrastructure and maintenance. Notably, the energy and cost-saving benefits of CaaS make it a strategic approach for large-scale projects, including high-demand environments such as IT parks, airports, and data centers.
This combination brings Tata Power’s strength in the Indian energy market, such as solar energy and power management, with Keppel’s advanced cooling technology, which incorporates AI and machine learning to enhance efficiency. They target up to 40% less energy use and carbon emissions by as much as 50% across high-demand sectors.
Cooling India with Sustainable Solutions
India will reportedly demand a lot of cooling systems through 2050. International Energy Agency shows that in the next thirty years, cooling will represent 28% of the overall India’s total energy demands. The need for these increases sharply with high-speed urbanization, new commercial infrastructural developments, and also from IT service, as well as these need cooling products and equipment throughout 365 days continuously and without delay.
It supports national initiatives, such as the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) and the Smart Cities Mission, which envision Indian cities to be sustainable in the future. Through the ICAP, the government is targeting a 25% reduction in cooling demand by 2038 aside from lowering the cost of cooling and making it much more affordable. The plan also looks to reduce demand for refrigerant and increase energy efficiency of cooling systems, reducing their overall impact on the environment. Tata Power and Keppel intend to assist with this goal through CaaS, efficient cooling options that help to lower energy and infrastructure costs.
How Tata Power and Keppel Are Collaborating
Tata Power and Keppel have teamed up in an alliance of Tata Power’s long-standing local knowledge and Keppel’s tech-cooled cooling solutions. Tata Power sets up shop in the India energy space and specializes in power supply, renewable, and energy management. Keppel is an innovative cooling-technology company that has come a long way with applications in AI and machine learning. It has successfully tried to implement it in commercial areas, providing maximum utilization of energy that has been highly effective within places like Singapore, according to Keppel sources.
The two companies combining their strengths are expected to build a model that serves the cooling needs of Indian urban hubs while being aligned to the long-term sustainability goals of India. This association could help India meet targets under the Paris Agreement as well as national goals in achieving net-zero emissions by 2070.
Technology in Cooling Efficiency
Advanced data analytics and machine learning algorithms govern Keppel’s cooling solutions, which are optimized in energy use based on occupancy levels, outside temperatures, and historical patterns of usage. This significantly reduces the dependence of the facilities on traditional cooling systems, which typically account for up to 50% of a building’s total energy consumption.
AI and machine learning can dynamically adjust cooling output, using energy only when needed. This efficiency will result in huge cost savings for any business, especially in high-demand sectors like IT and data management, where cooling is a must to maintain operational stability. Additionally, the reduction of energy consumption will lead to significant reductions in emissions, which will aid India in achieving its 2030 energy efficiency improvement.
Aligning with India’s Net-Zero Goals
Doubling energy efficiency improvements by 2030 will be an important example of the commitment India is making to the net zero goal. Sustainable cooling solutions will also play an important role in this mission because cooling systems are expected to be among the leading main drivers of energy demand growth in coming decades. By providing the CaaS model, Tata Power and Keppel contribute to India’s net-zero targets through helping businesses transition into less energy-intensive and greener versions of cool solutions with significantly reduced emissions.
This trend has a role model in Tata Power and Keppel as, in the wake of ESG compliance growing among Indian enterprises, companies can adopt similar strategies to enhance their sustainability metrics. CaaS delivers a solution that both helps fulfill the environmental commitments and answers business operational needs by lowering the consumption of energy as well as emissions.
Looking ahead: Scaling up CaaS in India
This partnership just concluded between Tata Power and Keppel will perhaps prove a stepping stone for changing the cooling landscape of India. Breaking precedents in itself, it will do so if other energy-challenged industries follow suit.
In conjunction with CaaS and other energy-efficient solutions, the adoption of such will make India reduce cooling-related energy demand, lower dependence on fossil fuels, and go a long way to help achieve net-zero targets. Such a model can then serve as a template for many countries that face similar challenges regarding sustainable cooling and energy management.
The Tata Power and Keppel partnership is an example of the need for collective action towards climate targets and how innovative technology can be part of the process of developing more sustainable solutions. As CaaS becomes more accessible, India’s urban hubs may drastically reduce their energy consumption, further opening the door to a more sustainable future.
Source: Tata Power