Glasgow City Council Proof of Concept Study

Glasgow

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IES chosen for its unique technology and expertise to carry out a 1 year Proof of Concept study investigating building energy optimisation.

Key Facts

  • Project duration: July 2013 – August 2014
  • £85K annual cost savings
  • 3-5 years payback period

IES was chosen for its unique technology and expertise to carry out a 1 year Proof of Concept study investigating building energy optimisation. The main purpose of the project was to explore how analysis of data already available could be used to refine Glasgow City Council’s building management and energy investment strategy and ROI targets.

The buildings selected were: Glasgow City Chambers; Exchange House; Collegelands; Riverside Primary School.

IESVE models created at design stage were used to run scenarios, modelled by incorporating AMR and BMS data. The project began in July 2013 and was completed by August 2014.

Data availability was an obstacle with 90% of the available data to IES being AMR data and 10% BMS data.

With the AMR data, gaps existed and had to be overcome. To do this, IES Consultants intelligently filled the gaps with suitable data i.e. data from the same month but from the previous or subsequent year. The consultants extracted the AMR data from the platforms provided by the utilities companies and uploaded it into the IES SCAN technology.

BMS data collection was also challenging. At best only 7-10 days worth of data was being stored. To work around this, IES set up a recording system for the BMS data. One of the biggest tasks was in taking all this raw data and converting it into a consistent universal format that ironed out inconsistencies across time steps, frequency, data gaps, naming conventions and units etc. IES used proprietary algorithms and its unique SCAN technology to achieve this.

A key finding was that BMS installations are being massively under-utilised by Facilities Managers. Currently BMS systems are being used primarily for plant control and basic fault detection, this project showed just how much data was available but either 1) not being logged at all or 2) not stored for any length of time, 3) not being used for analysis.

It also demonstrated how powerful data could be where there is a robust framework of data collection upon which advanced analytics can be performed. The potential for analysis extends across the building systems functionality; including relationships between indoor conditions and equipment performance, occupancy periods, and seasonal weather variations.

By doing this IES proved the energy investment strategy and ROI targets were possible. Annual Cost Savings for this group of buildings would be £85k, therefore 3-5 year paybacks are readily feasible.

Follow on projects are in discussion and will include a review of BMS specification within both a new build and refurbishment project. Plus, a high level AMR study in the Education Estate, will also take place to support development of a coherent BMS Strategy.

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