Midea Building Technologies (MBT), a business unit of Midea Group, and Keppel Ltd.’s Infrastructure Division have signed a non-exclusive strategic collaboration agreement to jointly develop AI-enabled, energy-efficient cooling solutions across Asia. The companies said the partnership will combine MBT’s capabilities in heating, ventilation and air conditioning manufacturing and intelligent building systems with Keppel’s strengths in Cooling-as-a-Service and digital optimisation.
Under the agreement, the companies plan to co-develop standardised, modular cooling systems. Implementation in specific projects will be carried out through separate project agreements negotiated by Keppel and MBT on a case-by-case basis. The companies said the modular systems are intended to provide a flexible, capex-light solution that can be deployed and scaled across multiple sectors while reducing on-site installation complexity.
Keppel said it can pre-fabricate cooling modules and assemble them onsite under a modular, pre-engineered approach. The systems will be connected to Keppel’s Operations Nerve Centre, which runs on its Infrastructure Intelligence digital platform and uses AI and machine learning for real-time monitoring and performance advanced analytics. Combined with MBT’s smart equipment, IoT sensors and intelligent building management systems, the companies said the solution is expected to improve operational reliability and energy efficiency while reducing lifecycle carbon emissions from cooling processes.
As part of the collaboration, the companies will establish an AI-first Centre of Excellence to support engineering, standardisation, optimisation and replication across potential projects. Target sectors include data centres, advanced manufacturing and industrial parks, healthcare and education campuses, aviation hubs, integrated developments and retrofit projects. Mr Poh Tiong Keng, Executive Director, Energy-as-a-Service, Keppel, said: “This collaboration further strengthens our ability to develop and deploy next-generation cooling solutions across Asia.”
