In Australia today 20% of our total energy is consumed within buildings, with commercial buildings accounting for about 10 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 85% of the energy is used for heating or cooling of rooms, and 15% for lighting. Depending upon the level of building automation installed savings of between 10% to 60% could be realized, with amortisation occuring in 2 to 10 years.
The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) energy efficiency star rating of 1 to 6 provides a quantitive rating for comparison of commercial buildings, with each star representing a 15% improvement in energy efficiency. The Commercial Building Disclosure program used in conjunction with NABERS, was established to harness energy efficiency opportunities in the buildings sector, an important step in achieving Australia’s energy efficiency and emissions reduction goals.
Building Management System (BMS)
The principal benefits of a building management system should be-
- Easy to use intuitive interactive screens for operator monitoring and control
- Real time data collection for asset management and energy usage monitoring
- Implementation and evaluation of energy efficiency programs
- Scheduling maintenance
- Alarms for abnormal operational conditions
- Web based for smart phone, pda, and browser communication
- Open database for third party software access
- Support for all popular communication protocols used for building automation
- Expandable for future improvements and building extensions
- On going software upgrades available to remain compatible with changing technology
- Data presentation for easy calculation of the NABERS star rating
Info (Aust Govt) – Commercial Building Disclosure
Info (Beckhoff) – Building Automation
Info (Siemens) – Building Automation
SCADA
The SCADA system collects the data from field devices including PLC’s, Control Relays, Networked devices etc, and stores the data in the tag database. Information in the database is then used by the various programmed scheduling and control functions to control the plant and present data to any user via a set of HMI’s.
The benefits of the InduSoft Web Studio SCADA/HMI system for building management are-
- Scheduling tools provided to switch plant on/off to reduce energy consumption
- Shows key performance indicators such at overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
- Alarm reporting to local HMI and remote web devices
- Generate reports of actual performance versus targets
- Implement once run on many platforms
- Browser based HMIs allows viewing from any networked PC
- Personnel security access control and tracking
- Password level determines user access
- Web based connectivity provides communication to smart devices including SMS and email
- Monitor and operate heating and air conditioning
- Security and surveillance, live video streams and camera control
- Lighting scheduling control
- Fire and safety systems
- Connection to any SQL database for open data access
- Drivers for BACnet and Modbus
- Open connectivity
PLC
