For the hotel resorts on the islands in the Caribbean Sea the costs for energy for air condition come to a substantial part of their total operational costs. New, cheaper and more sustainable solutions are in demand and district cooling offer these opportunities.

In The Dominican Republic the local energy company CEPM runs a combined heat and power plant (CHP) In addition to production of electricity they utilize the surplus heat from this process. Instead of letting the heat disappear into air or water the heat is in form of 120°C hot water transported to the nearby hotels and resorts via a pipe system.

By means of absorption chillers the hot water is transformed into pleasant cooling and a smaller part through heat exchangers turned into hot domestic water. With a temperature in the summer of more than 35° C as well the cooling of all rooms and facilities as a warm shower are required and appreciated by the hotel guests.

In this way the surplus energy from the power plant replace the local production of cooling and hot domestic water in the connected hotels. Thereby achieving annual power savings of not less than 40,000 MWh which is equal to approx. 9,500 t fuel oil. In addition also the environment is a big winner, because the savings in oil consumption spare the environment for a CO2 emission of 28,000 t per annum.

For this project the municipality decided on a pre-insulated pipe system from LOGSTOR consisting of 12 km of pre-insulated pipes.

Pre-insulated pipe systems are a new product and concept in the Caribbean Sea. Therefore the decision on components and design was done to make the installation simple and easy on job-site.

The E-comp concept was used for design as it reduces the pipe run and the quantity of bends.

The joints were BXJoints. They were chosen because of the easiness in installation done in one process, insulation by use of insulation shells and without use of special tools. It is also fast and easy to train new fitters to install it. The training of the local fitters was done by LOGSTOR technicians on the job site.

The pipes were delivered with copper wires embedded in the insulation and connected over the total pipe run. In the future on and off measuring of the system will identify any leaks in the system and penetration of water into the insulation which can be repaired before severe damage to the system takes place.

The delivery from LOGSTOR in brief:
• 12.000 meter of pre-insulated pipes in dimensions from DN 200 to DN 350 of which DN 350 made the biggest volume.
• BXJoints
• Training of fitters on job-site in handling of the LOGSTOR system and installation of joints.
• Installation and commissioning 2012

 

For additional information contact:

 

Tommy Lorenzen 

Area Sales Manager, LOGSTOR 

E-mail:  tol@logstor.com

 

Jean Laganiere 

Urecon

LOGSTORs repræsentant i Canada og USA

E-mail:  j.laganiere@urecon.com​