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The following article appeared in Prenova's monthly email newsletter - Energy Insider - and is provided courtesy of Questline and Tech Resources.
Key Points
- A performance monitoring system includes not only the needed sensors, wiring and data acquisition devices, but also the means to calculate, display, and archive resultant parameters.
- There are eleven sections for a basic level performance monitoring system specification.
- The specification recommends 41 specific measured, virtual, and calculated data points for a performance monitoring system.
The California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER) recently sponsored research by the Building Technologies Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. A primary product of this research project has been the development of a set of specifications for continuous performance monitoring systems that can be easily adapted and routinely used by a variety of organizations for both new construction and control system retrofits. It is encapsulated in the publicly available report, A Specifications Guide for Performance Monitoring Systems.
According to the Specifications Guide, a performance monitoring system can be defined as follows:
"The primary purpose of a performance monitoring system is to provide facility managers and operators with the means to easily assess the current and historical performance of the building/facility as a whole, and its significant energy consuming systems and components. The performance monitoring system includes not only the needed sensors, wiring and data acquisition devices, but also the means to calculate, display, and archive resultant parameters."
Within the Specifications Guide, Appendix D: Example Basic Level General Specifications, breaks down the specification into 11 sections as outlined below. Much more detail under each of the 11 sections is available in the report.
- Work Included-This section defines a general description of the work included. It addresses equipment, software, installation, programming, functional testing, documentation, training, and training documentation capable of meeting the performance monitoring requirements listed.
- System Description-This section contains a general description of the monitoring system. This description includes the performance monitoring system requirements, the graphic requirements, and the measurement accuracy.
- Instrumentation and Data Requirements-This section defines the instrumentation and data requirements. These requirements cover general topics such as equipment labeling, instrumentation warranties, and sensor identification for specific components including electric meters, natural gas meters, airflow meters, and weather stations.
- Sensors, Meters, and Calculated Values for Performance Monitoring-This section defines the sensor inputs, virtual points, and calculated values. This section contains a table which lists all the measured, virtual, and calculated points that are to be captured for the various sensors and meters. It includes requirements for Data Type (analog or digital), Sensor Type, Required End-to-end Accuracy, Display Resolution, Refresh Interval (minimum), and Meters Trend Interval (minimum).
- Data Point Naming Convention-This section describes the data point naming convention including the established name format, length, location, uniqueness, and use of uppercase letters.
- Trending-This section identifies required trends and their characteristics. It establishes points to be trended and the grouping of trend values including system data.
- Archiving Data-This section defines data archiving and retrieval requirements. It identifies three types of data archiving systems, SQL compliance, and requirements for read access, trend data interval and quality, data access, and trend data export.
- Graphics Requirements-This section describes the graphic display requirements on the operator's monitor for each facility feature, system, component, data point, and trend or other output result covered by this specification.
- Commissioning-This section describes the particular quality assurance tasks required to commission the performance monitoring system, including installation and set-up, sensor calibration verification, and demonstration/witness tests.
- Training-This section defines particular training requirements for operating and maintaining the performance monitoring system that shall be provided to in-house operating staff.
- Submittals-This section defines particular submittal requirements. It covers the submittals review process, construction documents, contractor quality assurance documents, as-built drawings, and training documents.
Sources
Gillespie,Kenneth L., et.al. 2007. A Specifications Guide for Performance Monitoring Systems. The Regents of the University of California through Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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