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Integrated BMS for convention centre

Johnson Controls recently won a contract to supply the Cape Town Convention Centre with its Metasys Series building management system (BMS).

The solution allowed the convention centre, in its newly erected building, to automate its airconditioning system as well as provide the flexibility to utilise other third party manufacturers systems that need to be integrated, such as access control or fire detection.

Cape Automation Systems, who are an accredited and sole supplier of Johnson Controls product offering in the Western Cape, installed the Metasys Series solution. Says Neil Cameron, controls division manager at Johnson Controls: "The solution allowed communication of the status of the BMS to other third party systems. For example, the status of the airconditioning units could be controlled from the access control system and temperatures or humidity levels increased or decreased.

"This is achieved through object linking and embedding for process control (OPC) and gave the Cape Town Convention Centre the freedom to choose future or current solutions, not dictated by one manufacturer." According to Cameron, the Metasys M Series incorporates open protocols and has the ability to communicate with disparate systems using standard IT technology such as Ethernet TCP/IP and Active X.

This means that one network is used for both the BMS and IT systems and Active X allows multiple systems to be managed from one program. "The challenge we faced was to integrate with the SCADA industrial automation software that is used for supervisory control and data acquisition of industrial processes. Together with OPC capabilities, this offered more control of the facility as the entire building may be monitored through one program," explains Cameron.

The solution also allows for energy savings and identifying potential pitfalls before they happen. "Unforseen costs are often the result of power spikes and the BMS can track these anomalies and prevent them. The solution also manages fluctuations in energy consumption by automating the airconditioning only if a person is in the room," he says.

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