by Brianna Crandall — July 19, 2013—The City of Kansas City, Missouri, continues to pursue its goal of being a national leader in environmental sustainability with the creation of an Enterprise Sustainability Platform (ESP) featuring hardware and software technology that is expected to save the city $600,000 annually in reduced energy costs in an initial roll-out. Kansas City plans to extend the ESP to all municipal facilities citywide for even greater savings.
The ESP technology platform was the joint design of building automation systems and energy services company Johnson Controls Inc., and Talisen Technologies, the St. Louis-based Business Partner of ARCHIBUS, Inc., a leading developer worldwide of real estate, infrastructure, and facilities management software.
“The two companies designed a technical solution to address the City’s key energy-related environmental issues,” says Kansas City’s Manager of Facility Services Robert Rives. “Those issues included consolidating data scattered in data silos, gaining visibility into rising utility costs and energy usage, creating a single view into maintenance and energy usage patterns, and overall better tracking of real estate and leases that impact energy use.”
Kansas City is also investing in a renewable energy project that will generate 5 kilowatts of photovoltaic-based electricity and 6 kilowatts of wind energy. The plan also called for 1000 gallons/day of solar-heated water in two systems.
To create a single-platform Total Cost of Ownership model, the City of Kansas City implemented a range of ARCHIBUS real estate and facilities management applications to help reduce portfolio/lease expenses as well as lower energy costs at six proof-of-concept facilities before a larger citywide rollout.
In spite of a weak economy and other hurdles, Kansas City recognized the importance of the project, which was budgeted at $6 million and affected six facilities comprising 1.3 million square feet of space. Those facilities were targeted for lighting upgrades, HVAC re-commissioning, HVAC conversion from Dual Duct Constant Air Volume (DDCAV) to Dual Duct Variable Air Volume (DDVAV), as well as variable speed drives on air handling units and pump motors.
The project started with three of the facilities updating their Building Automation Systems (BAS) and the other three installing new ones. Tenant space was sub-metered and the implementation team worked with local utilities to obtain near real-time metering and interval data for electricity, steam, and chilled water.
In addition to the integration of existing software systems and databases and the implementation of monitoring capabilities, the project also implemented ARCHIBUS Portfolio Management, Lease Management, On Demand Work and Preventive Maintenance, as well as Cost Chargeback and Invoicing applications.
These ARCHIBUS applications provided reporting capabilities that were essential to space and energy use analysis. Integrated with the BAS, On Demand Work helps automate responses to BAS-detected and other problems; and Preventive Maintenance added the proactive maintenance practices needed to help sustain operational and energy efficiency in HVAC and other systems.
As a result of the initial ESP implementation Kansas City is now reportedly able to measure, monitor, and verify a building’s performance as well as its renewable energy metrics. They are also able to continuously commission buildings, analyze whether operational changes are having their intended impact, and determine if conservation measures are meeting expectations.
“We’ve saved $250,000 through more efficient use of space at our existing facilities, which avoids renting space unnecessarily,” Rives reports. “The City saved another $200,000 through the discovery of inconsistencies in lease agreements, such as CPI (Consumer Price Index) adjustments not being applied and non-payments by tenants.
“In addition, the City reduced electricity consumption at one of its parking garages by 29%, saving $48,000 annually, and accomplished a similar feat at the Health Department, reducing consumption by 27% and saving over $100,000 annually in electricity costs there. The introduction of LED lighting, with their 100,000-hour lifespan, has also reduced maintenance requirements. By using the information and features provided by the ESP, we have lowered operational costs and provided a more proactive maintenance practice which has improved poorly operating HVAC systems through faster repair and re-commissioning.”
A series of environmental successes over the years has won Kansas City numerous environmental awards. To continue its successes, the City plans to eventually add ARCHIBUS Green Building, Waste Management, and Environmental Health and Safety applications to an environmental toolkit it hopes to extend to other city government buildings.
For more information, see the ARCHIBUS Web site as well as their FMLink ad.
