The Leading Edge of Building Management: Operations Centers

Jim Sinopoli, PE, LEED AP, RCDDManaging PrincipalSmart Buildings LLC

Agenda

• Overview of Operations Center

• Regional Ops centers• Steps to Deploy• HMIs• HMI Examples

Overview

• 75% of the cost of a typical building over the building’s life is related to ongoing operations

• Increased the effectiveness and efficiency of operations:– Savings– Increased occupant

satisfaction– Reduced energy use

• Operations Center– Consolidates and unifies

different functions– Streamlines the operational

processes

Why an Operations Center?

• Improved monitoring of the building and building systems. • Sensors, meters, and other means exponentially increases the

volume of data. • Additional data does not necessarily provide “actionable

information” • Converts data into meaningful information that is contextual

and actionable. • Meaningful information can be extracted and presented .

– Situational awareness (perceive, comprehend, project)– Aligns related work processes– Minimizes workload and errors– Enhances task performance– Provides information and reporting tools

Migration/Change

• NOC

• Help Desk

• Fragmented

• Operations Center

• Service Desk

• Consolidated / Unified

Integrated Systems – Integrated Operations

Building Automation

Systems

Security SystemsUser

Networks

Major Ops Center Elements• Command Center

– Generalists

• Tools and Process– Acquires, installs,

configures, integrates, maintains and optimizes

– Users• Ops center• SME• Business Users• Systems managers

– Process Optimization

Command Center

Tools and Process

Service Center

Main Functions

Incident Management

Service Requests

Configuration and Change

Regional Operations Center

• Large property portfolios– University campuses– School districts– State Government– Corporate

• Functions– Operations Management– Energy Management– Analytics and Analysis– Disaster management and continuity of operations

• 3% overall energy savings – Facilitate rapid resolution of building performance issues. – Building performance can be compared across facilities

• 5% overall operational savings– Centralized management of maintenance and work orders

Centralized Ops Centers• Boston Properties, a REIT

– Specializes in Class-A offices

– Owns 134 properties– In the Boston area, the

company owns 48 properties totaling 8.8 million sq. ft.

– A single command headquarters oversees nearly all of the Boston buildings.

Steps In Deploying AnOperations Center

Pieces of the Puzzle

Alarm Management

Control Room Design

Console Design

Operator Interface Design

Process ControlProcedures

Operator Staffing

TrainingWork Processes

Organization Building Architecture

Determine The Purpose Of The Operations Center

• Business decision based on the organization's strategic and tactical goals.– What’s the mission?– What needs to be monitored and managed?– What’s important and critical to the organization?

• Identify which departments or technicians need to be involved

• Set standards for how data will be transmitted into the operation center

• Standards for “situational awareness” for each type of event or alarm.

Assess Operator Needs

• Brains of the organization• Many departments or groups must collaborate• Perform a requirements assessment of each

group• The need for technology, space and access to

information will also differ. • This programming process is similar to the

typical architectural or engineering design process.

Estimate The Space Requirements

• Determine the general required functions in the operations centers.– Monitoring stations– Observers– Meeting rooms for planning and management

• Restrooms, kitchen, equipment rooms, etc.

Pick A Location And Space• Secure location with an infrastructure

similar to a data center– Access control– Generator– UPS

• Alternate back-up site• Allow for some means of expansion in

the future.

Analyze/Design Tasks And User Profiles

• Analyze operator tasks, workload and user needs.• Process modeling - Identify which tasks could be

automated or improved• Develop an organizational chart for the operations

center. • Create metrics to measure the effectiveness and

efficiency• Determine how information needs to be presented

to the operator and how it should be processed and changed by the operator.

Environmental Design

• Lighting• Acoustics or noise levels• Lighting in the operations center has to

have the right intensity and even the right color spectrum associated.

• Acoustic issues can cause distraction, stress, and interference with telephone conversations and normal work routines.

Workspace Layouts

IT and AV Infrastructure

• Reliability and robustness.• Secured collaborative systems for voice, data and

video• Upgradeable, primarily addressed through the

physical network infrastructure such as the size of equipment rooms and the quality and layout of the cable systems.

• Consideration given to reducing the footprint of the equipment.

• Use of approaches such as server virtualization and thin clients.

Environmental Design

• Ergonomics is about fitting the operator’s workplace to the operator.

• Addresses physical environment: the desk, chair, viewing angle of displays, keyboards and other physical devices used by an operator.

• The size, shape and suitability of the equipment are evaluated for the tasks and requirements of the operator.

Ergonomics

Reference Dimension Description Specification A Work Height (Data Entry) Minimum 21.5 inches B Angle Adjustable from 6° to 30° C Thickness Minimum 2 inches D Knee Space Depth Minimum 14.75 inches E Knee Space Width Minimum 23.5 inches F Thigh Clearance Minimum 7.75 inches G Distance to Work Minimum 1 inch H Toe Space Depth Minimum 4 inches I Toe Space Height Minimum 4 inches J Distance to Rear of Toe Clearance Minimum 22.5 inches K Hand Work Height Minimum 7.75 inches from SRP

View Perspectives

Human-machine interface (HMI)• Operator’s interface to the IT and AV systems

will have the largest impact on the efficiency and effectiveness.

• How information will be presented to operators will determine how it is analyzed, processed and acted on.

• Affects how issues are prioritized, the confidence an operator may have in the information and the time needed to act on the information.

Building Information and Integration Model

• Lots of data• Multiple users with

different needs• Potential for a lot of

alarms and alerts• High potential for

meaningless alarms• High probability

that an important alarm will be missed in the flood

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Stand Alone Web-Based

BAS + Equipment

Little to None

System to Equipment Dedicated Pathway

DDC, Chillers, Boilers, DX Equipment

Bacnet or LON

Level 1 & Electrical Systems

Facilities Level Information

System to System

Dedicated Pathway

High Voltage Power

Monitoring & Metering

Bacnet, LON, Modbus

Level 2 & Subsystems &

IP Network

Departmental Information Exchange

System to System & IP Network LAN

Card Access, CCTV, or Specialty

Subsystem

Bacnet, LON, Modbus

Level 3 & IT Wired/ Wireless

Multi-Departmental

and IS Information

Integrated IT/IDF, LAN/WAN

Wired & Wireless

Level 3 & IT Hardware

Level 3 & SNMP,

Wireless

Level 4 & Multiple

Specialty Systems

Multiple Systems Software,

Application Exchange

Multiple Network

Integration & Multiple

Subsystems

Specialty Systems for

Hospital, Data Center, LAB,

etc….

Level 4 & OPC, DDE, Server to

Server

Level 5 & Full Enterprise Application

Data Integration

Executive Level Sophisticated Software Data

Exchange

Level 5 & Data Integration to

Business Level Servers

Oracle, HP, SAP, Microsoft, other Business

Systems

Level 5 & XML, SOAP, WSDL

Level 1

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 5

Level 6Dat

a Typ

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Proto

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Applicat

ions

Comm

unicat

ions

Inte

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Info

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Man

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Impac

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Tidbits

• “ A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”, Herbert Simon, 1971

• 50% of the processing in our brain is related to our vision

• We read at the same rate people did 100 years ago.• Knowledge has become specialized• Processed Data• No multi-tasking regarding attention - sequential

• Perception of important information– Failure to perceive important information leads to the

formation of an incorrect picture of what is going on

• Comprehension of the perceived information with regard to their specific job tasks and goals– Failure to accurately comprehend what is happening can lead

to reasoning with an incomplete or inaccurate picture of what is actually happening

• Projecting where the situation is going– Failure to accurately predict what will happen can lead to

initiating the wrong corrective actions

Model of Situation Awareness

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Human Factors Design Principles

• Support the operators’ scope of work

• Take advantage of human & computer strengths

• Present information through use of data in context

• Design the interface for the task

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Enhance Attention and Perception

• Use visual display attributes to engage pre-attentive processing to emphasize innate and learned pattern recognition, such as:– Color– Shape– Orientation– Layout

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HMI ExamplesMore May NOT Be Better

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Operating Display

PI20118.71

PSI

TI201280.03

FFC201

4608.23BPD

LC20425%

LI21485%

FC2141308.29

BPD

FC23413.29KBPD

PC10615.73PSIG

PC10518.70PSIG

TI21389.03

F

TI223440.06

F

AI241320.78AMPS

D200

T20

3

T200

E209E210

C205

P211

P212P210

P209

TI202281.53DEGF TI203

200.09DEGF

LI22495%

NAPHTHA

VRU

FLARE

SOURWTR

SLOP

CSR

CWS

FUELGAS

FI226400.312MSCFD

PI11510.77PSIG

FI204000.00

MSCFD

T200 FRAC OVRHD

T200 TEMPS1-281.53 DEGF2-280.03 DEGF3-271.89 DEGF4-266.00 DEGF5-255.44 DEGF6-254.99 DEGF7-266.92 DEGF

50%

100%

0%85%

15%

65%

How many alarm conditions exist in this process unit?

emergency priority

high priority

low priority

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How many alarm conditions exist in this process unit?

emergency priority

high priority

low priority

Operating DisplayMain Fractionator Overhead

Sour H2O

Flare

Clear H2O

T200

D200

C205

1308 BPD

320 AMP

13,290 BPD

400 MSCFD

15.7 PSI

0 MSCFD

280 F

281 F

18.7 PSI

10.8 PSI

4608 BPD

89 F

440 F

Naphtha

VRU

Fuel Gas

1 281 2 2833 272 4 272 5 275 6 275 7 287

T200 Temp

25 %PI201; T203 Overhead Pressure

Slop

200 F

T203

E210

E209

85 %

95 %

18.7 PSI

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Salience

• Information can be emphasized or de-emphasized by its position on a display– Function of culture of reading from left to right– Visual dominance of center of display

Emphasized

Emphasized

De-emphasized

Neutral

Neutral

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Information Communication

Present information through use of data in context

• Data becomes information when shown in context to reference values (limits, past information, correlated data, what’s expected, etc.)

• Enhance Attention and Perception– How you present data makes a difference– Information – data that is meaningful relative to decisions

and actions

35

Data Presentation

Are any of these measurements normal or abnormal?

The answer for each data point requires:

• memory for normal range

• cognition to determine relation to normal range

Measurement Result Unit Reference Range Indicator

Flow1 75.7 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Pressure 2013.3 kPa 1800.0 - 2200.0Temperature1 245.1 C 175.0 - 250.0Speed 28,265 rpm 27,000 - 35,000Density 68.4 kg/m**3 65.0 - 85.0Flow2 95.6 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Temperature2 125.3 C 100.0 - 150.0

36

Information PresentationAre any of these measurements normal or abnormal?

The answer for each data point requires:

• cognition to determine relation to normal range

Measurement Result Unit Reference Range Indicator

Flow1 75.7 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Pressure 2013.3 kPa 1800.0 - 2200.0Temperature1 245.1 C 175.0 - 250.0Speed 28,265 rpm 27,000 - 35,000Density 68.4 kg/m**3 65.0 - 85.0Flow2 95.6 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Temperature2 125.3 C 100.0 - 150.0

37

Information PresentationAre any of these measurements normal or abnormal?

The answer for each data point requires:

• perception to scan for data points to the right or left of normal

Measurement Result Unit Reference Range Indicator

Flow1 75.7 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Pressure 2013.3 kPa 1800.0 - 2200.0Temperature1 245.1 C 175.0 - 250.0Speed 28,265 rpm 27,000 - 35,000Density 68.4 kg/m**3 65.0 - 85.0Flow2 95.6 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Temperature2 125.3 C 100.0 - 150.0

38

Information PresentationWhen did this parameter go abnormal?

Is this parameter moving back to normal or getting worse?

The answer for each data point requires:

• Memory for previous scanning of the indicator objects

Measurement Result Unit Reference Range Indicator

Flow1 75.7 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Pressure 2013.3 kPa 1800.0 - 2200.0Temperature1 245.1 C 175.0 - 250.0Speed 28,265 rpm 27,000 - 35,000Density 68.4 kg/m**3 65.0 - 85.0Flow2 95.6 Mg/h 60.0 - 85.0Temperature2 125.3 C 100.0 - 150.0

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Information PresentationWhen did this parameter go abnormal?

Is this parameter moving back to normal or getting worse?

The answer for each data point requires:

• Perception to see that point is getting better

Measurement Result Unit Range Trend

Flow 1 75.7 Mg/h 60.0 – 85.0

Flow 2 95.6 Mg/h 60.0 – 85.0

Temp 1 245.1 C 175.0 – 250.0

Speed 28,765 rpm 27,000 – 35,000

Building EngineerMonitor and Respond View

© 2009 Human Centered Solutions, LLP

40

Building EngineerAnalyze View

© 2010 Human Centered Solutions, LLC

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Systems Engineer Troubleshooting View

© 2010 Human Centered Solutions, LLC

42

Building Manager Operating Cost View

© 2010 Human Centered Solutions, LLC

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Contact Information

Jim Sinopoli, PE, LEED AP RCDDManaging PrincipalSmart Buildings LLC

19516 Sandcastle DriveSpicewood, Texas 78669 USA

512-215-4701512-293-2843 (cell)

www.smart-buildings.comjsinopoli@smart-buildings.com

Additional Resources“SMART BUILDING SYSTEMS FOR ARCHITECTS, OWNERS, AND BUILDERS”

ISBN 978-1-85617-653-8