Facilities Management Goes Green

Computerworld - Theres a lot of focus today on the greening of the data center. But the energy conservation movement and the proliferation of IP-based data transport are also causing IT to pay more attention to building and facilities management, an area that has traditionally been outside its purview.

From sportswear retailer Eddie Bauer to the New York public school system, organizations throughout the U.S. are implementing automated building control systems that send vital data over IP-based networks and are manageable through Web portals. The common goal is to reduce energy costs and comply with green building standards. Building systems are beginning to use the IT backbone as their medium to get information back and forth from the control systems to the people who monitor them, says Terry Reynolds, vice president for business development at Control Technologies Inc., a systems integrator in Burlington, Vt., that helped implement the New York schools system.

In many cases, facilities and building managers work directly with integrators to design and implement these networks. But even then, IT is needed to make critical decisions, such as whether theres enough bandwidth on corporate IP networks for the new data to flow in real time; how to carve out roles for IT, facilities and other departments for managing the new data transport; what security measures should be implemented, especially when the setup involves sending the data across the Internet; and how to set up the network addressing and naming schemes for the new devices.

When Redmond, Wash.-based Eddie Bauer Inc. needed to replace its automated temperature control system at its 2.2-million-square-foot fulfillment center in Groveport, Ohio, it went with the LonWorks system from Echelon Corp., a provider of networks that control and monitor heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting systems as well as other equipment.

With LonWorks, facilities manager Jim Annable can track the accuracy of the companys electric bills, as well as monitor trends and analyze data to fine-tune the schedule for turning on and shutting down systems. He can set thresholds for system alarms to notify him of conditions such as excessive temperatures, and he worked with IT to enable the system to page him over the intranet so he can respond remotely to unusual situations.

Annable can also monitor electrical usage in real time via a Web interface to minimize usage during periods of peak demand and thus reduce costs. Utility bills are based on peak usage, so you want to keep that as low as possible, he explains. We can shed load by turning off our air-handling units in certain parts of the facility or our high-speed sorting equipment. Its a matter of constantly balancing what we turn on and off, sequencing and timing. If the system calls for an air handler to turn on, and we delay it by 10 minutes, we can avoid being penalized by the utility company.