Almost everything we do happens in a building and some of those things end up as highly valuable assets and services. Yet we rarely give the building a second thought. It is just there. But business and residential buildings are just as complex and need virtually an identical measure of supervision and control as production processes if they are to remain profitable. And that is perhaps a good place to start – because that is where non-performance hurts most.
Buildings are either occupied by the companies that own them, such as industrial companies that own administration and production facilities or they are rented out to tenants by property developers and other organisations. So, buildings have to deal with three kinds of people: those who own them and occupy them, those who rent them out and those who are tenants. With the soaring cost of energy (or, in SA, the lack of electrical energy in the first place) and the need for increased levels of security, let us see what each of these three groups may be thinking right now:
* Those who own and occupy their own buildings may be looking at an item on the balance sheet with added interest since building management, always taken for granted before, has seemingly and suddenly become a major contributor to the red bottom line.
* Those who rent out buildings may see that their profit margins are no longer what they used to be and are faced with the alternative of passing the cost on to their tenants at the risk of losing them or doing something about containing costs to retain existing customers.
* Those who rent building space have specific requirements and budgets with regard to their working environments and this does not necessarily include being considered as the end of the food chain with respect to 'unavoidable and unfortunate circumstances' such as rises in the costs of energy and security. There are, after all, other buildings.
So, it seems that two of the major components of facilities management are the ability to contain costs while providing a competitive level of service to retain current clientele. One way of doing that is through the adoption of building automation principles.
Commercial buildings have a number of subsystems – security, lighting, elevators, power, safety and HVAC (heating, ventilation and airconditioning) – that are crucial to a well-run building. But most of them operate separately or, at best, are connected through a series of costly, hard-to-maintain gateways to a single human-machine interface.
At the beginning of 2008, Echelon, a leading provider of networking technology specialising in building automation (LonWorks), worked in conjunction with Munich Software in Germany to develop a technology interface that enables the Wonderware and Echelon applications to cooperate in addressing energy conservation management activities across a wide range of commercial and industrial facilities.
The integration of i.LON SmartServer with the Wonderware System Platform 3.0 delivers a single software platform for realtime operations management functions. It enables customers to achieve energy savings, improved safety and reduced maintenance costs.
Energy management is important in every industry and is particularly relevant in South Africa at the moment. The pairing of Echelon’s leading control products with Wonderware’s user-friendly supervisory software solutions will simplify energy management for end-users. It has never been so quick and easy to create robust control networks for improved efficiency and productivity in industries such as facilities management, building automation, retail and convenience stores and public venues.
Building automation benefits
Energy savings – automation makes buildings easier to manage, more comfortable to work in and saves energy as well. Energy savings can be of the order of 20% and even as high as 50% for ‘intelligent’ buildings designed for efficiency from the ground up.
Access control – access control for both personnel and vehicles can be exercised through radio frequency identification (RFID) thereby ensuring that only qualified personnel has access to certain areas in order to maintain the desired levels of security and safety.
More effective facilities management – facility managers can easily monitor and control lighting, security, HVAC and other functions either on site or at a remote location, 24/7 through a single web-enabled interface.
Energy management – the bigger picture
While building automation may not (yet) be viable for the smaller enterprise, it is proving not only a boon but also a revenue generator for larger organisations. In South Africa, we have many organisations that not only consume but also produce electricity and they could perhaps take a leaf out of The Venetian Resort’s book of asset optimisation.
To run this massive complex in Las Vegas requires a great deal of electrical energy and the management of the Venetian wanted to know how their investment could best be utilised. ESC, a GE Industrial Systems partner and Wonderware Systems Integrator, provided the system design, programming, integration and eventually all of the start-up and commissioning for the system. The end result was that The Venetian became not only a consumer of electricity but also a supplier.
The Venetian has 20 electrical power substations of its own, spread throughout its campus of buildings. “In our early meetings with GE and ESC, they convinced us that we could save a lot more money on our power bills if we did it this way,” says Mike Helbert, project manager for The Venetian’s power management systems. “The power company can bill us at a transmission rate instead of a distribution rate because they are not doing anything to it. We actually step down the voltage, just tapping off their supply. The transmission rate is a lot less than the distribution rate and, since we are a big user, we qualify for the better rate.”
The hotel typically draws utility power at a 12-megawatt rate for all its operations. The Venetian has its own bank of five backup generators that can produce up to 10 megawatts of power – enough to run facilities with minimal load shedding should there be a complete loss of utility power.
This new approach to power management not only means that The Venetian’s power bill is reduced tremendously, but that the hotel is also self-reliant when it comes to power sourcing.
Conclusion
Buildings are assets that no one can do without. They are a key component of business, production, security, comfort and many other aspects of everyday life and to that degree, deserve a second look.
Buildings are also becoming increasingly expensive to operate and maintain and those that occupy them are becoming more demanding of the environmental, security and service aspects of the facilities they rent not to mention the impact this will have on their bottom lines. Initiatives to contain operational and maintenance costs need to be started well before the situation becomes critical. Today, the tried and tested technology that is being applied to optimise complex industrial processes is available to building automation applications. From the tracking of permitted goods from suppliers to access control and from substantial energy savings to simplified facilities management, building automation is no longer a luxury but a key performance factor in the business plan of any company.
South African facility managers should be looking at their requirements today with a long term, holistic view of where they need to be. What many may consider extravagant today is already proving invaluable elsewhere in the world.
For more information contact Deon van Aardt, Wonderware Southern Africa, 0861 WONDER, [email protected], www.wonderware.co.za
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