Infrastructure upgrades at the Republic Plaza building, one of Singapore’s tallest skyscrapers, have made it one of the most efficient buildings in Singapore. The anticipated energy savings are estimated at four million kilowatt-hour of energy, or an annual savings of S$870,000. This is equivalent to powering 1,300 four-room apartments annually. The 66-story, 280-meter high Republic Plaza is a Grade A office building located at Raffles Place in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District.

Developer and building owner City Developments Limited (CDL) completed the improvements to enhance the building’s energy efficiency and to provide a more comfortable and productive working environment for building tenants. CDL has a strong commitment to sustainability through its property portfolio. Annual electricity savings from CDL sustainable buildings are estimated at S$19.7 million for the 37 buildings which received Green Mark certification between 2008 and 2011.

The High Performance Buildings Journey
High performance buildings take a whole-building approach to performance while creating spaces that are reliable, safe, healthy, comfortable and efficient. Trane, a leading global provider of indoor comfort systems and solutions and a brand of Ingersoll Rand, worked closely with CDL leaders for a plan to maximize the efficiency of Republic Plaza.  

High performance buildings meet specific standards for energy and water consumption, system reliability and uptime, environmental compliance and occupant comfort. All standards are set to deliver established outcomes that help building owners and occupants achieve their business missions.

Prior to undertaking the upgrades, CDL collaborated with Trane on an audit to identify opportunities for improvement. Based on the results of the audit, CDL leaders selected energy conservation measures that best met their objectives.

Customized Energy Conservation Measures Selected
Upgrades at Republic Plaza included replacing the 15-year-old chillers with new high efficiency centrifugal chillers which have full load efficiency of 0.495kW/Rton, one of the lowest ratios globally. This efficiency makes Republic Plaza one of Singapore’s most efficient commercial buildings.

Republic Plaza’s new high performance cooling system encompasses a variable primary pumping chilled water system as well as smooth low-loss piping and ducting for major chilled water and condenser water pipes within the chiller plant room.

The building also features proprietary algorithms to optimize chilled water system plant efficiency, in response to load and ambient weather conditions.

Trane also has set up a high accuracy monitoring system capable of meeting Green Mark V4 specifications for accuracy, trending at one-minute intervals and storing data for a decade or more. A web-based interface is installed to provide easy access to all data in graphic and spreadsheet format to allow information sharing for qualified users.

In addition, CDL has invested in various green initiatives for Republic Plaza such as installing LED lighting in the multi-storey car park with motion detection features to dim the lighting level to 50 percent when there is no traffic.