by Brianna Crandall — April 1, 2013—Demand for building commissioning services, which ensure that a commercial building’s equipment and control systems are performing as designed, is accelerating worldwide, says a new report from Navigant Research. And North America will lead the world in this expanding market, accounting for $13.8 billion, or nearly half, of the $28.8 billion in total worldwide revenue for building commissioning services during the period from 2012 to 2020, the study concludes.
Navigant Research notes that unlike automobiles, which are tested and tuned up on a nearly annual basis, buildings—which consume far more energy—often go through their entire lifecycles without ever being tuned, let alone re-tuned. This can have an effect on maintenance and operations throughout the lifecycle of a building, and can affect energy consumption and costs as well as scores on applications to meet sustainability standards such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.
“Concerns about the initial costs of commissioning, as well as a lack of understanding and awareness of its benefits, have kept the practice of commissioning relatively rare in the construction industry worldwide,” says senior research analyst Eric Bloom. “In the long term, however, these barriers will start to fall as the concept is further proven and as green building certification and other high-performance building standards become more commonplace and desirable.”
Over time, the delivery of commissioning services will be transformed through the advent of building energy management systems with continuous commissioning capabilities, according to the report. These systems, which tie into a building’s existing building management system or building automation system, can continuously monitor and provide fault detection and diagnosis within a portfolio of buildings, enabling a level of continuous improvement that today’s commissioning services and solutions cannot.
The report, “Building Optimization and Commissioning Services,” examines the worldwide market for building commission services, including initial commissioning, recommissioning, retrocommissioning, and continuous commissioning. Market drivers and barriers are explored in detail, along with global demand-side dynamics. The report analyzes future technology trends in continuous commissioning and profiles 22 key industry players. Market forecasts, segmented by region and by type of commissioning, are provided through 2020. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research Web site.
