District cooling follows a simple process as illustrated below
Water is chilled at a central cooling plant
Chilled water is pumped through a network of underground insulated pipes to customers’ buildings
An air-conditioning water system inside the customer’s building circulates the chilled water
Air is then pumped through the chilled water piping of the air-conditioning system producing cold air
Components of the district cooling system:
Central cooling plant
Pipe Distribution Network (PDN)
Energy Transfer Station (ETS) or customer connection point.