Columbia University
OP-T2-17: Energy Management System

Columbia uses several types of building energy management system to manage and control equipment measure energy usage across its building portfolio, including Andover Controls, Siemens, Automated Logic, Allen-Bradley, and more. Approximately 50% of Morningside buildings are on a BMS system. Only buildings that are part of the central enclosure on the Morningside campus which includes most academic, science, research buildings, IAB, East Campus, Butler, most undergraduate residence halls, and Lerner Hall (student union) are on a management system. As part of the metering plan, Columbia has implemented a system called BUDA (building utility data acquisition). 15 buildings are already on-line and more will be added for all of Morningside. In the buildings, panels are installed that can connect electrical, water, and steam meters that will feed data to a central location. The data is live for use by Facilities staff with a goal to supply the information in a clickable public map of buildings. The information collected will help with measuring energy efficiency, erratic usage, reconciling with finance and ultimately help improve the University’s carbon footprint. The Medical Campus uses a Johnson Controls BMS with a campus interface linking all controlled buildings at a single virtual interface. The William Black Building received the most recent BMS retrofit. Sponsored by an ARRA grant, this building was retrofitted with a building management system to monitor the operation of the central plant, which serves 4 buildings, and the air handling units within the Black Building. Optimized for energy efficiency, building engineers can now track when systems are not performing correctly through the alarm method, as well as maximize use of free cooling and efficient chiller operation. The Hammer building was wired this summer. Russ Berrie, Irving and Lasker contain existing building management systems. In general at CUMC, all construction/renovations projects include an upgrade to DDC controls for the spaces. Then Facilities Engineering comes through to upgrade the air handling units and central plants to DDC. Utilities supplied on-campus through neighboring facilities are also sub-metered on a base building basis. There is also a base building monitoring system run through Stark, which monitors all input fuels into each research building on 15-minute intervals for both campuses. Additonal information on EMS's at Columbia: CUMC EMS: http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/facilities-management/news/energy/sustainability-update-january-2012 and http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/facilities-management/energy/energy-initiatives Morningside EMS: http://facilities.columbia.edu/pecovic-named-avp-plant-engineering-utilities Manhattanville EMS: http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/proposed_plan/environmental.html