SP Group offers extra 6 months’ warranty for Tengah’s cooling system after leak complaints

Utilities company SP Group, which manages the centralised cooling system in Tengah town, will offer an extra six months’ warranty covering the system’s piping and trunking within flats.

Residents who have collected or will be collecting the keys to their units on or before Dec 31 will receive the additional warranty, SP said on March 28. This is on top of the 12-month defects liability period that covers the fan coil units, piping and trunking.

This move comes after some residents of the first three Build-To-Order (BTO) projects in the new town faced condensation and leaks from their cooling systems, The Straits Times reported earlier in March.

SP also said that the chilled water usage rate for the system will be lowered to 12.2 cents per kilowatt-hours refrigeration (kWrh) before goods and services tax from April 1 to June 30, down from 13.2 cents per kWrh in the previous quarter.

The usage rate for the cooling system is reviewed and adjusted quarterly.

SP said the additional warranty and the reduced usage rate will “bring added value and cost efficiencies” to subscribers of the centralised cooling system.

Plantation Grange resident Muhammad Aqeel Kaskhy, 33, said the extra warranty gives him greater peace of mind as he faced condensation issues in February, with water droplets forming around the cooling system’s trunking.

The issue was resolved after workers added extra layers of insulation around the pipes.

“The additional warranty will allow more time for people to actually use the system and put it through its paces,” said the marine service coordinator.

Civil servant Alvin Lim, 32, who is expecting to collect the keys to his four-room flat in Tengah in the first quarter of 2025, said he hopes the extra warranty can be extended to more residents.

“What about those who collect their keys after Dec 31, 2024? It would be better if the warranty can cover not just the system’s piping and trunking, but also the floor, walls and furniture that are damaged due to the system,” he said.

Tengah, an eco-friendly and car-lite “forest” town, is the first HDB estate to provide a centralised cooling system as an option for home owners.

The system uses chilled water to remove heat, unlike conventional air-conditioning units that are connected to outdoor compressors and use refrigerants to cool down flats.

Centralised chillers on the blocks’ rooftops produce chilled water that is piped directly into homes.

Residents are billed for the chilled water and electricity usage of the cooling system each month.

In November 2023, SP said it would waive usage charges for the system until Dec 31 that year as a gesture of goodwill, and lower the rate from Jan 1 in response to an outcry from residents.

More than 150 Tengah residents sent a signed petition to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in October 2023 in which they highlighted that the chilled water usage rate of 20.38 cents per kWrh for the period of October to December 2023 was higher than expected, and requested that it be lowered.

SP said then that the rate from Jan 1 would be adjusted to 13.2 cents per kWrh before GST because some residents had moved into their Tengah flats, and it was able to review its rate with usage data.

But the cooling system had further teething issues. Earlier in March, ST reported that some residents cancelled their contracts for the cooling system after encountering leaks.

Manufacturer Daikin, which is responsible for installing the centralised cooling system in Tengah flats, said it tripled its team of workers rectifying condensation issues. It also doubled its quality control team in order to conduct extra checks and reduce workmanship issues, among other efforts.

SP and Daikin told ST that cases of condensation – which may result in leaks in some incidents – were largely caused by workmanship issues due to the Housing Board’s “compressed timeline” to hand over units to residents.

On March 28, SP said it continues to work closely with Daikin to ramp up resources in handling teething issues and workmanship challenges.

“We have resolved a majority of the condensation issues, and our priority is to address and resolve all outstanding issues expeditiously,” it added.

In response to queries, SP said the number of cases still being resolved as at March 28 has been reduced to fewer than 30, down from 80 in mid-February.

It expects to overcome its teething issues in 2024.

SP said it had more than 9,000 subscribers to the cooling system as at Feb 12 – seven out of every 10 Tengah flat owners.

In comparison, an archived webpage date-stamped Nov 15, 2023, on SP’s myTengah website showed that there were 10,600 subscribers to the system, representing eight in 10 flat owners in the new town.