PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainable further education college for the future
I
n 1970, Exeter Technical College became the UK’s first Tertiary College providing all post-16 education and training for the city of Exeter with approximately 6,000 young people and adults and 130 teaching staff. Now the college, which was recently
rated ‘Outstanding’ by OFSTED, educates and trains over 11,000 young people and adults, full time and part time, from across the city of Exeter, Devon and the South West. It provides a range of courses for all ages from A Levels and the International Baccalaureate to over 80 vocational and industry-led courses. The college welcomes students from a range of local schools, trains apprentices and higher education students graduate each year with Foundation Degrees and other university level courses.
saving opportunities.
40 YEARS OF EXPANSION Over its 40 years, the college has expanded into an array of different buildings with their associated specific demands and control systems. As part of its sustainability and corporate responsibility policies, the College was aware that it had a number of systems that were coming to the end of their practical life along with the need to save energy and carbon emissions. It engaged Ability Controls and Energy Management Ltd to assist in looking at ways it could save energy while still ensuring it provides a comfortable working environment within the confines of its existing budgets. In addition, it also wanted to enhance the visibility of conditions, operation and co-ordination of the multiple installations across the college’s sites. It was crucial that communication across the sites was easy and accurate to ensure energy consumption and savings could be easily analysed.
REFURBISHMENT TO DELIVER SAVINGS
80 per cent of the initial works undertaken have been refurbishment, focusing on upgrading existing building energy management system (BEMS) hardware and reprogramming the controls software. Victoria House was selected as the first site to focus on due to the immediate needs of upgrading the existing BEMS and the potential energy
26 Ability Controls and Energy
Management Ltd installed Siemens Desigo PX hardware, and the existing I/O modules, wiring and field devices were retained to minimise the disruption caused and costs to the end-user. As part of the works, Siemens Desigo Insight was installed to provide effective visualisation of the new refurbished plant rooms and associate areas they serve. It provides plant graphics and alarm, set-point and time scheduling adjustments to enable easy monitoring and management of the plant rooms, while also allowing expansion to cover proposed future works on campus.
TANGIBLE SAVINGS TO RELEASE CAPITAL
This initial installation required some reallocation of funds within the existing budget, but soon proved its worth in the reduction of gas used on site. Subsequent evaluation of the meter reading before and after the installation show a 40 per cent reduction in gas used which equates to a 2.4 year pay back on investment. The evidence of tangible savings validated the college’s initial calculations and has allowed more funds to be moved for a site wide programme of upgrade and refurbishments in addition to standardisation of this solution for new builds.
Because of the initial success of the project, the decision was made to incorporate the Centre of Creative
PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 2 ISSUE 6
Industries (CCI), a separate part of the campus, on to the new system. As the installation was across the campus, the IP network on both sites was used to provide the communication between the BEMS and PC front-end.
The multiple buildings across the sites have various numbers of modular and compact PX outstations installed and communicate across the site IP. The outstations employ BACnet as their native communications protocol to ensure open communication and future proofing. Detailed discussions with the site’s IT team took place to make sure it would comply with its IT policies and not interfere with other software applications it was running.
STANDARDISATION ACROSS SITES To ensure efficiencies across the sites, the college has decided to standardise all its systems to Siemens, but where it is installed, wherever possible the existing wiring from the original installation has been re-used to minimise the disruptive impact on the busy site and keep costs down.
In addition to Desigo PX hardware, the refurbishment has seen RXL terminal unit controllers installed in various areas across the sites. The RXL controllers are
eu.bac certified ensuring the highest level of energy efficient operation and control accuracy. They are connected to the front- end software graphics to give a clear overview of each fan coil unit (FCU) being controlled and the conditions maintained. They have been configured in accordance
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