To increase energy efficiency and economy, commercial building projects now often ulitise centralised, shared sources of heat such as district heating and cooling (DHC) systems. To maintain efficiency precise monitoring and scheduling of maintenance for chillers and heat pumps is essential. Low-performance operation results in energy loss, while unnecessary maintenance is expensive and wasteful. Plant supervisors are responsible for scheduling and supervising maintenance. Modelling systems that assist in analysing system deterioration are of great benefit for these tasks. Topological case-based modelling (TCBM) (Tsutsui et al 1993; Tsutsui 1995) is an effective tool for chiller performance deterioration monitoring. Describes TCBM and its application to this task using recorded historical performance data.KEYWORDS: year 1996, absorption chillers, monitoring, calculating, performance, district heating, accuracy, chillers