Project Golden Gate 450.
Without such capabilities, building owners would be unlikely to be able to assess the competitiveness of designs and integrate innovative solutions from different manufacturers that would best suit their application.
And the adoption of the BACnet protocol as a standard for integrating building automation system components changed the industry forever, opening the door to innovation in building control technology.
Today, thousands of BACnet systems are already installed. Many of these projects are small-scale and used the BACnet protocol to integrate new HVAC equipment with existing closed-loop building automation systems from various manufacturers.
Other BACnet automation systems mainly use products from only one manufacturer.
The Golden Gate 450 project stands apart, notable for the volume of work, as well as the fact that many manufacturers of various equipment are involved in it.
But in addition to the HVAC control system, this project is also notable for the fact that today it demonstrates — as the world’s largest «land owner» — the United States General Services Administration (GSA) — will manage its buildings in the future.
In 1996, the Philip Burton and Federal Courthouse in San Francisco was selected as the site of the world’s largest commercial demonstration of the benefits of the BACnet standard. This is an office building with 22 floors and an area of 130,000 sq. m. m) the second largest in San Francisco.
And it was chosen, in particular, because the scale of the previously existing EMS control system was small, and recent renovations made it most suitable for typical commercial office buildings.
The EMS system upgrade also demonstrated significant energy savings.
The projected total savings were more than $500,000. Numerous equipment from different manufacturers were tested, as well as their ability to jointly monitor and control building engineering systems, but based on the BACnet standard.
In addition, methodology for monitoring building energy consumption, operator workstation networks, and communications equipment was included in the EMS project to facilitate future energy accounting and building business activity studies.
Contracts with the first two most profitable suppliers for the project were concluded in August 1996.
Related procedures were completed in January 1998, and the project has remained on staffing and budget since award. Subsequent stages of the work would include BACnet gateways into the existing floor lighting control system, the pre-BACnet EMS system, and a direct link to the local utility company.
The building’s individual thermal heating upgrade was also planned point. In addition, negotiations were underway with a fire protection system manufacturer that could result in the integration of the building’s fire alarm system using the BACnet protocol.
One of the objectives of this project was a real demonstration of the integration of equipment from various manufacturers. And the project specifications were prepared with the express intention of splitting the work among the EMS vendors.
Different companies at one time installed different HVAC equipment in the building, which distributed the scope of responsibility between suppliers. In general, the project has identified six levels of work (A — F), which in the future can be distributed among various suppliers.
Level A
Provide complete energy management installations for major building air conditioning systems. These include eight dual-channel VAV units, more than 1,000 terminal units, a variety of compact units designed for use in server rooms, as well as selected types of equipment for a central air conditioning unit.
This level of tasks also includes tools for operational monitoring so that the building’s energy consumption can be distributed among the final categories: heating, cooling, ventilation, etc. Six large two-channel air handling units serving over 70% building area are also included in this level of work.
Level B
Provide complete installation of control systems to automate the operation of HVAC equipment in the courtrooms located from the 175th to 205th floors. This solution includes 13 single-zone and one multi-zone supply air units supplied with cold from a single system with a chiller.
Level C
Provide BACnet protocol interfaces to monitor systems installed in this building prior to the upgrade. These are the «legacy» energy management system services serving the FBI offices on two floors of the building, and the lighting control system serving the GSA offices located between the third and fifth floors.
Level D
Provide a complete EMS installation for all HVAC systems with division into zones in the GSA offices located between the third and fifth floors.
Level E
Provide a contractor for future work to install a complete EMS system to monitor and control the substation and refrigeration plant. Today, alternative versions of the central heating point system are already being developed
Level F
Provide the EMS system with a network of operator workstations (OWN — Operator Workstation Network). OWN gives dispatchers every access to the functions needed to work with equipment from different vendors.
This includes the configuration and installation of a server, operator workstations, mobile workstations, interface software with the primary EMS system, and a network of cables necessary to build a complete building management system based on the BACnet protocol.
This modification included an update DDC control systems with approximately 1200 VAV units, in which controllers running both BACnet and proprietary protocols were installed. Local information from non-BACnet controllers was translated into BACnet messages using “field” controllers.
One of the most unique aspects of this project is the operator workstation equipment. Due to the presence of a multi-vendor equipment configuration in the project, the main concern for GSA was ensuring the efficient operation of operators, their training and ensuring the interfacing of equipment interfaces.
To optimize operator efficiency and provide a unified interface to the EMS5 system, software from one of the equipment manufacturers was selected as the base for accessing the OWN workstation network. All other equipment manufacturers were responsible for ensuring that the
workstation displayed the correct operating parameters of their equipment, color graphs and other data from all systems.
Each of the systems has been tested and approved. Level F required integrating the operation of the vendor’s hardware into the workstation software running on BACnet.
Ultimately, this single workstation should become a single tool for accessing multi-vendor equipment throughout the entire building. The result must be a way to access all parts of the EMS system and its information from any workstation, regardless of manufacturer.
The organization and distribution of the database was a primary concern for the design of the operator workstation and the OWN network.
The EMS system envisioned in the Golden Gate 450 project is large-scale and complex. But the problem was solved by recording all data from EMS on the OWN server.
The process of implementing the Golden Gate 450 project began almost immediately after the release of the ASHRAE — BACnet 1995 standard.
The first stage was the collection of information from a large number of manufacturers of various equipment, as well as their long-term plans for integrating equipment with the BACnet protocol.
It took several years for equipment manufacturers to develop add-ons to their products to enable integration into a BACnet system. Therefore, the presence of the BACnet protocol was mandatory only for the upper level of automation.
Proprietary protocols from the manufacturers were provided for communication between controllers at the field level using BACnet gateways.
The evaluation committee included representatives from GSA, a local utility company, a utility design organization, and representatives from NIST.
From a large number of applicants, the committee selected two vendors to implement this project.
The objectives of level A, B and F work were the responsibility of one firm, and the objectives of level D were the responsibility of another.
The remaining goals did not receive proper funding at the initial stage of the project, were postponed, but were later implemented.
The use of the BACnet protocol in the Golden Gate 450 project was extremely successful.
The timing of the project’s entry into the market has become an impetus for equipment manufacturers to integrate BACnet solutions into their products.
The results proved that the BACnet protocol really works. This was also important because this standard was just paving the way for itself.