Fort Mill School District (FMSD) has won the Energy Project of the Year award for their continued focus on improving their energy performance above and beyond state mandated levels. Through a number of programs FMSD has been able to dramatically reduce their energy consumption and has achieved the state’s 20% reduction by 2020 goal well ahead of time.
In support of this goal Activelogix was retained by FMSD to work on optimizing the BAS system. The goals of this project were clear: increased occupant comfort, better control of the buildings and significant energy savings. With these goals in mind and in conjunction with FMSD team members the existing systems were evaluated, upgrade solutions were selected and these solutions were implemented. The implemented solution include the following:
- Upgrade from Niagara R2 to AX – The Niagara software that is the core of the district’s BAS was upgraded from the R2 version to the latest version AX. This upgrade provides significant new functionality and reliability in how the building is controlled and the level of data that can be extracted from the building.
- Retro-commission the Building Automation System – The retro-commissioning of the BAS system ensured that the BAS was, in fact, programmed properly and controlling the building optimally.
- Implement Facility Scheduling – A facility scheduling functionality was added to the system so that administrators could easily shut off parts of the building that were not being used, while at the same time power up specific areas for special events (ie Basketball games in the gym).
- Automate Critical Building Alarms – The BAS was configured to generate alarms when certain conditions were met, and these alarms would then automatically alert the proper personnel to address them before they became more serious issues.
- Provide an Energy Dashboard – A key to an effective energy management program is engaging the community as a whole in your reduction goals. The energy dashboard provides a real time view into energy consumption across the district, and can be used to drive competitions, to foster learning in the classroom and highlight important aspects of the sustainability program.
- Driving Future Design Specifications – Ensuring that these optimizations continue in the future is important to the ongoing success of this program. In keeping with this an effort was made to improve future design specifications that would align with these optimizations.
“The initial results of this program have been impressive as we’ve met our 20% energy reduction goal well ahead of state requirements,” said Mike Robbins, Building and Grounds Supervisor at FMSD. “As a district we’re excited to move into the next phase of this project and continue to outperform our goals.”