Telecommunications

A well-known telecommunications and wireless provider with hundreds of retail locations throughout North America sought Lynxspring’s help to improve their building operational performance. Increasing efficiencies helped them gain better management and control of their energy usage equating to big savings across their entire enterprise annually.

Managing their outdated building equipment, their hope was to upgrade the technology in their building facilities to better access enterprise-wide setpoint changes and meet a new corporate mandate to cut their carbon footprint in half by 2020. In addition to reducing kWh, the client insisted on implementing standardization and monitoring across its entire portfolio of energy management systems and engaging in smart building management practices corporate wide.

Challenges

The client was working with three disparate, legacy energy management systems (EMS) of varying ages that were in place and already operating with HVAC, lighting, and indoor air quality (IAQ) systems. They also had no access to global setpoints or enterprise-level views. Lastly, there was no enterprise management and central control, or the ability to script hundreds of database changes quickly.

Solution

Lynxspring and Facility Solutions Group (FSG), a Lynxspring Technology Solutions Partner, worked together to develop a strategy which addressed the client’s vast number of stores and would provide a more effective and efficient workflow process. This process included connecting, accessing, automating, integrating, and improving visibility of their building data operations including HVAC, lighting, and other systems. Once this initial workflow was created, it was easily replicated across the enterprise of stores using normalization and benchmarking. In order to effectively monitor and control the various systems from a single, centralized system, a single software platform and hardware solution was identified.

Utilizing Lynxspring’s JENEsys® PC controller powered by the Niagara Framework®, a custom retail application was developed using wireless thermostats and a Zigbee to BACnet gateway. FSG can now continuously monitor 84 points of data hourly, across all locations and regularly test mechanical equipment remotely planning preventative maintenance repairs. One such example is when FSG performs cooling tests to help trouble shoot underperforming HVAC units.

Successfully integrating and deploying this building system solution in the client’s retail stores has allowed this telecommunications provider to exceed its carbon goal four years ahead of target. The client reported a 54% reduction in the first quarter of 2016. They also reported an average reduction of 1,092,662 kWh per year resulting in much lower maintenance and operating costs than the prior year.

With a total of 322 systems already installed in its stores, the project is on track to move that number to over 500. Following the launch of Lynxspring’s JENEsys Edge® 534 programmable controller, it is now being deployed in all new installations.

JENEsys Edge® Building Operating System

Lynxspring’s JENEsys Edge® Building Operating System streamlines all areas of your commercial building’s operations. Addressing such challenges as energy management, maintenance, and facility usage, JENEsys Edge delivers a proven solution.

Lynxspring’s JENEsys Edge® portfolio of products—powered by the Niagara Framework®—combines remote data access and analytics, connectivity, interoperability, supervision, control, and dashboard visualization and analytics into a single architecture within an open, scalable, modular, and cybersecure environment. JENEsys Edge supports a variety of applications with the flexibility of common API’s, development tools, open access, and an open hardware platform. Our edge-to-enterprise technologies incorporate IP-enabled software frameworks and modular embedded hardware platforms that support multiple protocols, data exchange and analytics, and two-way communication.

The JENEsys Edge 534–N4 enables you to access data from different sources, make it consistent across multiple applications, have more capacity, offer higher levels of data processing and increased storage capabilities, and add a level of command, control, and security. In fact, the JENEsys Edge® 534 also satisfies all IT Security testing requirements for the General Services Administration (GSA).

The JENEsys Edge Building Operating System, powered by the Niagara Framework, is the ideal open, turnkey solution for single site buildings or even a multi-building campus environment. During the last twenty years, Lynxspring has worked with a network of over 350+ Niagara certified business partners.