According to CIBSE [1], “the commissioning programmes produced by building services installers and their sub-contractors are frequently over-optimistic and uncoordinated. They assume that others will co-operate in providing water, gas and electric supplies, a weather tight building, unobstructed access and a dust-free environment. A risk of project overrun will exist unless the interdependencies of all the building services systems and plant are identified, together with their integration with on-going construction activities. This complex, and highly fragmented part of the construction process demands good management”. FAC can provide indepandent commissioning management consultancy services.
[1] The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. Commissioning management. CIBSE Commissioning Code M. (2003)

Building Energy Systems Commissioning To verify that the project’s energy-related systems are installed, and calibrated to perform according to the owner’s project requirements ( OPR ), basis of design ( BOD ) and construction documents. Benefits of commissioning include reduced energy use, low operating costs, fewer contractor callbacks, better building documentation, improved occupant productivity and verification that the systems perform in accordance with the owner’s project requirements ( OPR ). [2]
[2] EA Prerequisite 1: Fundamental Commissioning of Building Energy Systems, Energy & Atmosphere, LEED 2009 FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION AND MAJOR RENOVATIONS.

Due to the enormous investments in the equipment they house, and the essential nature of the information they process, data centre require highly reliable electromechanical systems for electricity supply, space conditioning, fire protection and security.
In order to operate effectively, banks and other financial services companies require reliable communications, data processing and data storage facilities. Major equipment is often housed in dedicated data centres, where 99.9% reliability is not an uncommon requirement.

The data centre is to form a key part of global network for IT, as such any failure and inadequate performance of the cooling capacity would be a major incident for client. To overcome any happening of failure incident or inadequate cooling capacity, elements of the plant and systems should have backups to ensure uninterrupted use of the facility.

To ensure operation of these mission critical systems in emergency or failure, FAC could be appointed as commissioning managers to manage the various stages of commissioning, interdependency testing, heat load test ( HLT ) and the Integrated Systems Test ( IST ).

The HLT is to test the entire cooling system for the data centre taking into account of the failure and different cooling loadings requirements by simulating corresponding heat loadings provided by electrical heaters at the data hall.

The IST is to test the reliability of the E&M system for data centre. By simulating failures at different scenarios and observe the corresponding response of the equipment and the system. This is particularly important for life safety systems and critical environments.
FAC could lead all parties involved in the preparation and planning of the documentation to be used and ensure that all system failure scenarios are tested, with the system set to operate as intended for normal use.

Recommissioning is the process through which buildings are commissioned again at some time after their initial completion, occupancy, and commissioning. Retro-Commissioning is commissioning of a building that has never been or was not fully commissioned at its completion. Recommissioning is a check to ensure that building systems are still functioning as originally planned, constructed, and delivered, and to identify where periodic operating procedure changes or drifts in control calibrations have affected building mechanical system performance.
A building that has not been recommissioned or properly commissioned in the first place, so extra money on energy costs could be spent. To save the cost, FAC could solve the problem by providing the following services:

The objective of the audit is to benchmark the current energy performance of the building, and form a basis for estimation of the potential energy management opportunities.
Audit prodedures would follow ASHRAE’s ‘Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits -SP-56, RP-669′ or EMSD’s ‘Energy Audit Code of Practice’ to the extent as appropriate to the facility. The audit and survey would normally focus on the facility’s main energy using systems, particularly the HVAC and lighting systems.

The aim of benchmarking is to describe what constitutes good, average and bad energy performance across a range of situations. Benchmarking mainly consists in comparing the measured consumption with reference consumption of other similar buildings or generated by simulation tools to identify excessive or unacceptable running costs. Benchmarking is also necessary to identify buildings presenting interesting energy saving potential.

Based on the results of initial energy audit and benchmarking, a recommissioning could be developed. The recommissioning plan is a document that defines the project’s objectives, scope, schedule, and documentation requirements. The plan serves as a guideline for team members to follow throughout the process by providing an outline of the processes and procedures that will be undertaken, a schedule of activities, defined roles and responsibilities of team members, and forms and templates that will be used to document the recommissioning activities.

Based on the recommissioning plan, existing system would be upgraded. FAC could monitor the progress and report this to the client.

FAC could take lead on the recommissioning work to ensure the upgraded system reaches the design criteria, and to ensure that the commissioning procedure is based on recommissioning plan.

The M&V plan seeks to demonstrate the energy savings arising from recommissioning exercise, whilst discounting any saving or additional consumption from the impacts of changes in weather and occupancy. the energy performance post recommissioning is adjusted for these independent variables to gain a true assessment of the impact of the recommissioning. The recommissioning exercise needs to take into account the ability to measure system performance, either through permanent meters, tapping points to allow connected of flow meters, access for electrical measurements, etc.

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