B Surendar

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing the CEO of Emicool, excerpts from which appear in this issue. Adib Moubadder is passionate about his assignment and feverishly driven to put District Cooling up on a lofty pedestal. It was, hence, hardly surprising that he responded to an observation about the reluctance shown by certain consultants to District Cooling with the following words: “They (consultants) are giving wrong recommendations owing to a traditional way of thinking. You cannot approach a country that is raising millions of square feet of buildings, with a traditional mentality.”

At the same time, Adib was candid enough to admit to certain shortcoming plaguing the industry, before quickly adding that efforts were on to nullify them.

Adib’s words represent the keenness of several industry players to robustly showcase the virtues of District Cooling. Never has it been as acutely felt as now, in this nascent economic upturn and the revival of construction activity.

In my books, the Great Recession had a polarising effect of sorts. With projects happening in painful spurts, post-Lehman, plus the uncertainty surrounding load profiles, as we all saw, the mood swung in favour of standalone chilled water systems and also the variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technology. Today, though the overall climate has improved enough for customers to once again consider District Cooling, there is a willingness to explore the other options.

Plurality is good from a macro point of view. It is good for the economy, the environment and for the individual pockets of customers. It spurs efforts to raise the bar on not only energy efficiency but on making cooling more affordable, plus adding to greater physical comfort, well- being and productivity.

This issue of the magazine represents a plurality of views. In addition to District Cooling, we have visited the VRF industry. For three years running, August has traditionally focused on the VRF technology through a state-of-the-industry report. Given the heightened interest, this time around, we have transformed the report to a supplement, so we can explore the issues in greater depth.

The revival deserves such a treatment.

– B Surendar
Editor
@BSurendar_HVACR