Examples of how Niagara saves energy

It is not always possible to document the savings that come from deploying Niagara in buildings to improve energy efficiency, but here are two examples with the evidence:

There is more than 80 billion square feet of existing commercial office space in North America ready for energy efficiency improvements. The average commercial real estate owner spends approximately one-third of their controllable operations budget on energy, making a building’s energy spend the single largest operating cost that is controllable. However, many owners and building management personnel are still unaware how energy is being wasted in their buildings and of the building’s energy spend.

At the same time, energy costs continue to rise, building owners and facility management need to take a more rigorous approach to attacking energy waste in their buildings as this positively impacts operating income; not just on a one-time basis, but as an ongoing part of a long-term operations and business plan.

A key step in energy efficiency is that improvement in energy efficiency isn’t a one-time event. Ongoing energy efficiency solutions are critical components in the continuing evolution of building energy efficiency available to commercial real estate today. The technology for making buildings more energy efficient is economically attractive, reliable proven and affordable. As with anything, the proof must be in the pudding; in this case it is real savings in both usage and costs and reduced operational expenses.

Manitoba Hydro, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Manitoba Hydro is the primary energy utility provider for Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In 2009, the company completed a new corporate headquarters encompassing a 22-story office tower with over 700,000 square feet of public, retail and commercial and office space.

The owners wanted to build an energy efficient facility, assist in urban revitalization, and provide a supportive workplace for the occupants that provided a healthy, productive and creative workplace for employees.

Powered by Tridium’s NiagaraAX, some of the energy efficiencies initiatives included the atriums providing conditioned fresh air, a flexible, Internet-based Building Management System to coordinate operation of energy management and building systems to manage and control the systems within such as temperature, ventilation, and energy – helping to create a building that is smarter, uses less energy, is more efficient, and has lower operating costs.

The Proof

Since initially occupying the building, Manitoba Hydro Place has exceeded the original target of 60% energy savings and now has approached an actual energy savings of 65% and was named 2010 ENERGY STAR Participant of the Year by Natural Resources Canada. In addition, they are saving $15 million in annual operating costs.

The design and operation of this building is also proof that an extremely energy efficient building can provide an unsurpassed work environment for occupants and save on operational and energy usage costs.

MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Macau

The MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Macau is a $1.6 billion, three year old property located on prime water front land in Macau’s central Nam Van gaming district.

There are few international businesses under more competitive pressure than hotels and casinos. In this case, the owners were very concerned about operational expenses and in particular, the power bills, which were in excess of $1.6 million per month. In addition, it was also felt there was a poor handover practice from construction to operation and that a lack of commissioning and sign off resulted in a building that was in trouble.

Some of the major issues they faced included an 18 month old building management system that had 600 alarm faults and was basically bypassed; a chiller plant control system that was bypassed due to failures; and inefficient chillers due to no maintenance and ineffective water treatment issues, and the 450 volt chillers operating at around 350 volts.

The Road to Recovery and efficiency included:

Ripping out the existing controls and replacing them

Re-commissioning the overall building automation system and replacing the original chiller plant control with Airmaster’s PlantPro™ based on a Niagara AX platform

Implementing a planned maintenance practice across the entire site

Repairing failed or failing systems

Rebalancing primary and secondary chilled water systems

Integrating the current control systems into Tridium’s NiagaraAX Framework architecture

Accessing from end to end via corporate Intranet ongoing support of the property

The Proof

Savings of energy in excess of $3.1 million with power bills in the first quarter of 2010 being the lowest in the property’s history. In addition, there was also a reduction in CO2 emissions of over 35 tons.

The Proof is in the Pudding  - excerpt from an article first published by Realcomm March 2011
Author: Marc Petock, VP, Global Marketing & Communications, Tridium Inc.