Why Automate Central Plant Diagnostics?
By Tim Cramer | Director of Solution Consulting | Key2Act
Cutting Costs and Headaches with FDD
In the ever-expanding world of building data and analytics, a common question that arises is not if the increased use of building data and Field Detection and Diagnostics (FDD) has value, but rather how to best maximize the value of FDD with the least amount of upfront cost and effort? To harvest and intelligently utilize all the data a building has to offer, businesses must evolve the way they do business, along with the process of ingesting, modeling, and interpreting that data. This barrier to entry has turned otherwise forward-thinking businesses and individuals into the proverbial groundhog, peaking their heads out of their borrow, and deciding if another 6-week nap is the best plan before taking any action.
So how then can we inspire action with the sometimes-daunting level of effort required for these digital transformations? Better yet, are there better options to reduce this level of effort? The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and so we must decide where to take that first step and focus our efforts.
To evaluate the proper strategy for this phased approach, we need to take a look at Pareto’s Principle, which 20% or less of the effort will grant me 80% or more of the value. This is not only a question of strategy, but one of focus and scale. If I am looking to better serve a site with 400 pieces of equipment, where do I begin? A logical place to start is automating the central plant diagnostics.
Why Begin with the Central Plant?
It likely comes as no surprise to anyone in the Building Services industry, that central plants make a logical starting point. The central plant carries a host of advantages when considering integration to a FDD or Building Analytics tool, including:
• Asset Value – Central plant equipment are often some of the largest and most expensive assets in a building. Thus, there is a higher need to secure their value by ensuring proper maintenance, potentially leading to extended lifespans.
• Performance Impact – Central plant equipment is often essential to maintaining site comfort and overall system performance. Failures in these plants can often lead to major consequences for the entire building.
• Energy Savings – Central plant equipment is generally very large, have far-reaching usage, and tend to be some of the biggest energy hogs in the building. Improvements to the equipment’s sequence and operations can have major overall system and energy impacts.
• Centralized Controls – Central plant automation systems are often bundled onto a single control device due to their very close physical proximity. It is common to see entire chiller or boiler plants on a single unitary controller. This tends to make building automation implementation easier, as there are fewer steps to ingesting and employing the data.
• Low Equipment Count – Central plant equipment are generally very large and have such broad use, the total equipment counts tend to be lower, leading to lower implementation and recurring costs over time. This also means the value per equipment and per point are significantly higher than other equipment with less broad application throughout the building. In some cases, an entire heating and cooling plant system can be integrated with fewer than two dozen total pieces of equipment.
Return on Investment
Once implemented, these central plants become a low-cost way to prove the value of FDD and Building Analytics without a huge time or cost commitment. But because the equipment value itself is so high, the ROI opportunities are great. Once these values can be clearly demonstrated to our organizations, it becomes easier to spread from there and integrate other equipment throughout the building, where the total value may be just as high or even higher, even if lower on a per equipment basis. Furthermore, the savings incurred from the initial implementation may fund the expansion, creating a snowball effect of savings compounding upon themselves.
Learn more about value FDD and Building Analytics – Meet BOB.
About the Author:
Tim Cramer | Director of Solution Consulting | Key2Act
10+ years in HVAC/BAS as a Property Manager (22 buildings), and BAS Service Operations Manager (over 1,500 buildings – commercial, retail, residential)