District cooling technology is advantageous in warm and hot climatic regions, in that chilled water from a central refrigeration plant is delivered through a distribution network to groups of buildings. The technology is most suitable for new urban developments where system design and construction receive much freedom. With a focus on the energy use, this paper outlines an energy modelling methodology and decision approach to derive the most desirable scheme for a given project. The process involves a series of building design load computation, dynamic simulation, and plant energy consumption analyses for different phases of development. A proposed scheme for the South East Kowloon Development Project in Hong Kong is quoted as an example to illustrate the approach. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.