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OVERVIEW
This chapter addresses the need for an energy management system
to measure, monitor, control, and forecast energy consumption
in an office building, and ultimately to benchmark its energy
performance. We also address the implementation of an operations
and maintenance (O&M) program in the building.
An energy management system (EMS) allows for centralized
monitoring and control of energy use across building systems.
The upgrades to controls for lighting, office equipment, HVAC,
and water heating that have been described in previous chapters
all constitute stand-alone control systems (e.g., photosensorbased dimming controls for lighting); an EMS is a central
control system, allowing facilities managers to operate all standalone control systems in a building simultaneously from a single control
pad or web application. Sensors throughout the building that measure
conditions such as light level, indoor/outdoor temperature, and water
temperature (called monitoring points) serve as data inputs for the
EMS, which uses that information to adjust control components (called
control points) such as dimmers, chillers, and boilers. When a new
EMS is installed, it can be configured to work with most existing sensors
and controls, and to any new monitoring points and control points that are
added. In recent years, EMS technologies have become more affordable
and more widely used.
Building Management Systems (BMS) and Building Automation
Systems (BAS)
Facilities managers and energy efficiency engineers may also refer to
building management systems (BMS) or building automation systems
(BAS). The distinction between these terms and EMS often depends on
context or the preferred terminology of a given manufacturer, and can be
confusing.
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What sensor and control points does the leasing companys building
currently employ? Can an EMS be configured to interface with existing
sensors and system controls?
What additional sensor and control points would improve EMS
performance?
Energy to a facility flows in different forms as it gets transformed from
final energy such as electricity, diesel fuel, natural gas, and pumped
municipal water to useful energy, thus providing illumination, comfortable
air temperatures, high standard air quality, and hot water, as well as the
running of office equipment such as computers, copiers, and printers.
This transformation from final to useful energy is undertaken by building
services such as lighting systems, HVAC system, office equipment, and
others covered in this handbook.
Our first step would be to measure the input energy to, and in most cases
the output energy from these systems with the aim to establish an energy
balance or an energy budget for our facility which allow us to quantify the
third component of the energy triad in a facility namely wasted energy.
A) EMS OPTIONS
A1) New EMS installation/retrofit upgrade. Energy management systems
range broadly in complexity. More complex systems have greater numbers
of pointsmonitoring points (inputs) and control points (outputs)
which typically translate into higher energy saving potential, as well as
higher installation costs. More complex systems are more fully automated
and require minimal manual adjustment by building operations staff once
the systems are operational.
According to the California Energy Commission, any building with a peak
demand over 200 kW should consider employing an EMS. Additionally,
if an existing EMS is over 12 years old, full system replacement should
be considered. If a host company currently employs an EMS that has been
installed within the last 12 years, it may be advantageous to undertake
a retrofit upgrade to a more sophisticated system. A retrofit upgrade can
often be accomplished by installing and connecting additional sensor and
control points to the existing EMS system and reprogramming the software
to incorporate the added equipment. An EMS specialist can advise on the
feasibility of retrofit upgrades.
Selecting the correct system for a given building requires considering the
needs and capabilities of the companys operations staff. Clearly, a company
should not invest in a system with features it is unlikely to fully utilize.
The best EMS for a given company is the system that maximizes energy
savings potential per dollar invested. An EMS specialist should present
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Control components
Packaged units and chiller start/stop control based on
time and temperature; fan and possible lighting on/
off control based on time; and/or water temperature
control based on time and temperature.
Static
Dynamic
Average
costs per
control point
$200
$400
$700
Financial case study: In 2002, a company moved into a new 67,000-squarefoot headquarters in San Francisco. The existing building management
system (BMS) was 20 years old and in need of replacement. The company
installed a new Emcor BMS with timed start-up and shutdown for lighting
and HVAC. The new BMS system also allowed the company to track energy
use on each floor separately (sub-metering) and to charge the groups using
each floor their true portion of the energy costs. The BMS installation cost
$40,000 and reduced electricity and gas costs by 50%, achieving a 1.7-year
payback period for the project.
Financial case study: Until 2001, the 1.4-million-square-foot Hewlett
Packard (HP) campus in Roseville, California, was operating an EMS with
limited automation, which required labor- intensive manual adjustment
of controls in order to curtail energy loads during peak demand events.
Using funds available from the California Energy Commission and the
local municipal utility (Roseville Electric), HP upgraded its EMS and
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added additional sensor and control points for ventilation and lighting
systems. The changes gave HP the capability to shed 1.5 MW of its 10.9
MW peak demand without disrupting occupants. HP now uses the EMS
load-shedding capabilities on a day-to-day basis, saving $1.5 million
annually in energy costs as a result. The EMS upgrade cost $275,000, but
incentives covered $212,000 of the project cost, giving HP a payback of
less than one month on the project.
Most of the control functions required to implement the energy efficiency
measures described in the previous chapters could be performed by the
EMS. A list of the most relevant control functions follows:
Lighting modulation for daylight control.
Timers for lighting control.
Load shedding, demand side management for peak load shaving.
Offset cooling.
Space temperature set point based on the outside temperature.
Chiller variable speed control.
Economizer mode enabling.
Free cooling.
Night ventilation.
Timers for electric water heater control.
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IMPORTANT
Make sure to:
Install flow meters as per manufacturer instructions to ensure
proper and accurate data readings.
Calibrate the measuring instruments at predetermined intervals.
The accuracy of instruments is critical for a sound energy
management program. Flow meters should particularly be
maintained regularly to ensure accurate readings, as they are the
main source of errors in a data monitoring system.
MIXED APPROACH
Manual start/stop of equipment
Manual data recording
Manual performance computations
Manual Book keeping
Manual scheduling of Maintenance activities
In general, for large and even medium size facilities with an office
space exceeding 1,500 m, partial automation of the EMS is strongly
recommended. It is doubtful that the existing O&M team will ever be able
to cope with such a task manually.
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Mission
Promote and implement effective, efficient as well as responsible
practices that achieve resource efficiency, particularly concerning energy
and water.
Scope of work
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Identify and review suitable methods for auditing, reporting, and benchmarking
of the energy performance of the building.
Develop a carbon accounting methodology.
Communicate energy efficiency initiatives to the stakeholders in a building and
promote behavioral change.
Supervise all energy data measurement, logging, and processing.
Decide which systems will be equipped with energy data monitoring
instrumentation.
Monitor electro-mechanical (E&M) systems energy performance.
Issue directives to correct faulty practices in E&M systems operation that lead
to wastage.
Verify that established resource consumption reduction targets have been met.
Investigate measures to further reduce energy consumption.
Undertake sustainability performance auditing.
Establish energy performance benchmarks.
Ensure that the building complies with all current environmental laws and
regulations.
Provide strategic direction to improve the buildings social and environmental
responsibility performance.
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