The facilities service provider at the James Cook University PFI Hospital in South Tees did not miss the opportunity for change when the scheme was designed. It has selected a software controls suite – Tridium's Vykon – that, according to systems integrator Utah Controls Systems, will save the South Tees Hospital NHS Trust over £1 million over the project's 30-year lifetime.
The hospital is currently under construction on the site of the former South Cleveland Hospital. It will cover 124 000 m2, of which 50 000 m2 will be new build, and is due to complete by the beginning of 2003. The new facility will bring together the region's health services, which are currently provided from this and two other sites.
The PFI consortium includes Mowlem Major Projects, Aqumen Group, Crown House Engineering and Barclays Capital and has a 30-year contract.
With much of the existing building being retained, a control system that could take account of existing plant as well as new equipment was vital to ensure that maintenance could be carried out with any degree of success.
Facilities management provider Aqumen identified two principal priorities within the building services remit: the need for a fast response capability to alarms; and the automation of the maintenance and plant reporting procedures.
The company's design brief was to provide a single solution that would integrate the existing disparate building management systems with other building services devices and new installations to create an interoperable network. This would ensure a quick response to all automated alarms and remove possible financial penalties. The proposed solution could also allow automated maintenance and reporting regimes, generating considerable savings in staff time on site.
Utah Control Systems was tasked with the technical detail for this performance specification. A standard open system was initially considered but was rejected in favour of the Tridium package. Utah md Mark Davenport explains: "The open system we selected was capable of the job up to a point, but demanded a high degree of engineering, unlike the Vykon software, which has satisfied all of our requirements and is delivering a host of unexpected interoperability benefits."
Vykon enables different protocols to be interoperable by using common object modelling to identify individual items of plant and convert them into standard software models, allowing open communication via a web browser (EMC, May 2001, p 36).
To date 17 independent systems have been networked, with more to follow. Davenport calculates that each additional system will achieve an average return of 15% saving. "Without Vykon it would not have been possible to deliver the standard of integration expected. The best result is against multiple networks interfaced with a dedicated pc; these tie the client into a single access point and multiple license costs every time connectivity was required from another station."
The predicted £1 million savings will be achieved through the use of fully automated fire/smoke damper testing and resetting, and the provision of a maintenance profile based on the drive time of the motors.
A further £140 000 has been realised by eliminating node connection charges, common with other open systems. "The site has in excess of 50 000 nodes, which I believe makes it the largest integration project in the world," states Davenport. "Without Tridium we would not have been able to deliver the integration."
Time will tell the final savings achieved, but according to Davenport, the signs for South Tees are positive.
Source
Electrical and Mechanical Contractor
