Innovating the next generation of commercial smart building software

Nearly 30% of commercial building energy use is wasted due to equipment faults and HVAC
controls problems. The result is increased emissions, compromised comfort and productivity, and
less reliable coordination of building power needs with a clean grid. The energy impact alone
represents $17 billion in potential savings. Today’s smart building software provides a robust
solution to address these operational deficiencies. Energy management and information systems
(EMIS) are saving up to 9% on average, with two-year paybacks. They are being incorporated
into energy management processes, commissioning services, and utility programs. As effective
as they are, two barriers prevent even deeper benefits; limited personnel to fix problems once
they are identified, and the expense and time to manually implement changes in control systems.
In partnership with the research community, the EMIS industry is developing new
capabilities to overcome these barriers. Moving beyond siloed products for either fault detection
and diagnostics, or optimal control, these new capabilities empower users to not only
automatically identify faults, but also to push corrective action, and control improvements to
their buildings.

In this paper, several areas for enhancements are documented: ‘one-time’ correction of
faults such as setpoints, schedules, and economizer lockouts; short-term active testing for
automated proportional integral derivative (PID) loop tuning and functional testing; and
continuous supervisory control for demand flexibility and year-round efficiency. Results are
presented from a pair of partner implementations out of a dozen providers integrating these
enhancements into their products, including field tests from across the country, and insights into
operator acceptance and integration into operations and maintenance practices.