The challenge
Each building was fitted out at a different time by a different contractor. Chillers, boilers and air-handling units are controlled from separate panels, some with their own software and one with none at all. Facilities staff can’t see the campus as a whole.
Plant runs to fixed schedules regardless of occupancy or weather. Chillers cool empty floors on public holidays, and nobody can say what the free-cooling opportunity actually is.
Tenants are recharged for electricity and water from manual meter readings. That causes disputes and late recoveries, and every year some cost goes unrecovered and lands on the landlord.
Our approach
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Plant and meter audit
We list every chiller, boiler, AHU, fan-coil zone and meter on the campus, how each is controlled today and what it can report. The audit decides what stays and what needs a new controller.
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One control layer
PLCs take over plant sequencing (chillers, boilers, AHUs, exhaust fans and dampers), with schedules driven by occupancy and outside-air conditions rather than a fixed timetable. Existing controllers that speak Modbus are kept and integrated.
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Tenant sub-metering
Electricity, water and heat meters are read automatically, with DLMS meters connected through DLMS-to-Modbus gateways, so every tenant recovery is based on an actual reading for an actual period.
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Operate and improve
Facilities staff run the campus from one SCADA view on desktop or mobile, with alarm acknowledgement and notes. Monthly energy reports by building, floor and tenant show where the next saving is.
System architecture
How the layers connect, from the people using the system down to the equipment in the field.
- Facilities manager and technicians
- Desktop and mobile apps
- Monthly tenant statements
- SCADA plant graphics
- Schedules and alarm management
- Tenant billing export
- Campus Ethernet on a separate OT VLAN
- Modbus TCP between plant rooms
- PLC per plant room
- Modbus gateways for existing controllers
- DLMS-to-Modbus gateways for meters
- Chillers, boilers and AHUs
- Fan coils, exhaust fans, dampers
- Electricity, water and heat meters
What we’d deploy
- PLCs for chiller, boiler and AHU sequencing
- Occupancy- and weather-driven schedules with free-cooling logic
- Gateways reading DLMS/COSEM electricity meters per tenant
- Water and heat meter reading for full utility recovery
- Lighting control for common areas and exteriors
- Billing export in a format the property’s accounting system can import
Target outcomes
Targets we would design and report against, not measured results from a named client. Actual results depend on the baseline established in the audit.
