Remote Ongoing Commissioning Proposal for the Wiley Federal Building
General Services Administration
Public Buildings Service National Capital Region
Only about 20% of new commercial and government buildings are commissioned upon construction completion. Further, the concept of ongoing commissioning of existing buildings, sometimes called retro-commissioning is relatively new to commercial and government building owners and operators. Ongoing commissioning is not widely practiced and yet significant benefits could be realized by building owners.
The GSA Metropolitan Service Center (WPD) looked at continuous ongoing commissioning with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in FY2003 through a technical support agreement with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program. In September 2004, PNNL made a remote connection to the Wiley Federal Building’s building automation system (BAS), a Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) Metasys System. The remote connection to the building’s energy management system data revealed significant opportunities for operational and energy efficiency improvements.
The Wiley Federal Building is a new building constructed by GSA in 2001 to house the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). It is a 380,000 sq. ft. facility located near the University of Maryland at 5100 Paint Branch Parkway, College Park, Maryland. The building is a combination of approximately 30% laboratory and 70% office space and requires 100% outside air to maintain air quality for the sensitive laboratory experiments related to the safety of our nation’s food supply.
As result of the above, the GSA Metropolitan Service Center is finalizing a proposal with JDL Business Services of Clinton, MD regarding the aforementioned ongoing commissioning (Infometrics Program). JDL partners with Cimetrics Inc., headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, to provide the ongoing commissioning, which provides GSA a complete process of data acquisition, analysis and reporting that provides periodic management information and unbiased recommendations to continuously optimize building systems performance. Since the Wiley building is a high energy user, with several HVAC and structural operational issues, GSA is examining the JDL proposal carefully as an innovative approach to both energy use conservation and maintenance of buildings systems.
The Infometrics program requires connectivity and monitoring of a building’s current Building Automation System (BAS). This is done through an “open protocol” called BACnet. BACnet technology allows a remote ongoing commissioning contractor to connect to a variety of control systems that can range in brand, type, age and configuration. Open protocols are growing in acceptance and usability. Open protocols also not only open up BAS systems to competitive integration, but they also allow data extraction for analysis and optimization, such as the analysis and optimization options provided in this Remote Ongoing Commissioning proposal.
It is anticipated that this proposal, if approved and implemented, will yield significant energy and operational savings.
Contact:
James R. Watson, Jr., Program Analyst
General Services Administration
Metropolitan Service Center (WPD), james.watson@gsa.gov
