District Cooling is an urban utility service involving the centralised production of chilled water for distribution to buildings for air-conditioning purposes. Centralised district cooling services aims to optimize land use and reduce business cost in Singapore.

The Government has decided to implement a district cooling system in Marina South. The service areas in Marina South where the district cooling system will be implemented will be published in the Singapore Government Gazette from time to time. The provision of the district cooling services in such service areas requires a licence from the Energy Market Authority. Currently, the Authority has granted a licence to Singapore District Cooling Pte Ltd ("SDC") to provide district cooling services within these service areas. SDC’s licence took effect from 1 April 2006.

The provision and use of district cooling services within the service areas operates in the following manner. Unless exempted by the Authority, the occupier of any premises situated within the service areas requiring air conditioning must use the district cooling services provided by the district cooling services licensee for such purpose. Correspondingly, it is mandatory for the licensee to provide the district cooling services to the occupier of such premises.