As utilities across the country face growing pressure from data centers, electrification initiatives, and aging infrastructure, reducing energy demand has become just as important as generating new power.
A new white paper from Innovas Technologies highlights an often-overlooked opportunity for grid relief: maintaining clean condenser tubes in water-cooled chillers.
The analysis examined a representative central chiller plant operating five 1,200-ton chillers. With just 9% fouling degradation, the plant was found to consume approximately 686,400 kWh of unnecessary electricity each year—enough to power roughly 65 homes annually. The excess energy demand also results in more than 265 metric tons of avoidable CO₂ emissions.
The Helios Automatic Tube Cleaning System (ATCS) addresses this challenge by continuously cleaning condenser tubes while chillers remain online. Unlike annual manual cleanings, which allow fouling to return almost immediately, Helios maintains near-zero fouling throughout the operating season. The result is lower energy consumption, improved chiller performance, reduced maintenance requirements, and meaningful grid relief during peak cooling periods.
The implications extend beyond individual facilities. According to the report, widespread adoption of clean-tube operation across the nation’s water-cooled chillers could eliminate more than 1.2 gigawatts of unnecessary demand from the electrical grid while avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars in wasted energy costs annually.
As building owners and operators look for ways to improve efficiency, clean-tube operation offers a rare opportunity to reduce operating costs, lower emissions, and support grid resilience—all without sacrificing cooling capacity.
Download the white paper to explore the full analysis and learn how continuous tube cleaning can transform chiller performance and energy efficiency.
