Priva’s BMS technology takes control of new HQ of Aberdeen City Council
As part of the £68 million refurbishment of Marischal College, the world’s second-largest granite building and the UK’ largest, into the new corporate headquarters of Aberdeen City Council, Priva BMS technology has been installed to control the building-services plant and systems. The granite facades of the century-old structure have been retained and the interior demolished to enable the creation of 16 000 m2 of modern office space over four floors for up to 1300 staff.
A key feature of the project is a biomass boiler supported, in view of the harsh climate in the area, by two gas-fired boilers in a separate boilerhouse. Both boiler houses have Compri HX8E BMS controllers and touchscreen display. The boilers operate in a step-controlled manner to achieve the required return temperature, with the setpoint available to the operator via the Priva BMS. Boiler operation is continuously rotated to equalise duty.
Heating and cooling throughout the building is provided by individual ceiling-mounted water-source heat pumps integrated with the Priva system for time and temperature control using 16 Compri HX4 control panels located across all floors. The heat pumps draw heat from the water loop or reject heat to it as required — balancing the energy demand of the building.
The main heat-rejection plant consists of adiabatic coolers to maximise cooling by ambient air; they are monitored and controlled by the Priva system.
The total project has over 9000 integration points controlling plant that includes 643 fan-coil units, DHW system, AHUs on the roof for ventilation and WC extract ventilation. Input and output status is provided via Modbus or BACnet networks to the Priva controllers.
Incoming electricity, gas and water is Monitored by Priva BMS technology.
Campbell Controls supplied a PC and TC Vision software package to allow integration/alterations of all the Priva-controlled plant from a central point in the FM room. This software provides access to all the 9000-plus integration points from any PC in the building’s intranet system or remotely via an Internet connection.
