SBS integrates sustainability energy monitoring system across the University LAN (Peter Doherty Institute)

Smart Building Services (SBS) designed and installed an AMR network at the $210 million Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne, which spans 14 levels of specialised laboratories, teaching facilities, an auditorium and associated infrastructure.

Project specifications

The Peter Doherty Institute is a state-of-the-art bio-medical institute built on sustainable design principles to accommodate around 700 expert scientists, researchers, clinicians, academics, staff and students.  The project achieved a GBCA 5 Star Green Star – Education Design V1 Rating.  The energy sub-metering system achieved a full credit point under the Green Star Rating Tool Scorecard.  The credit point is achieved where sub-metering is provided to separately monitor lighting and general power consumption for primary functional areas (class/lecture/tutorial/office/administration/laboratories) in order to facilitate ongoing management of energy consumption.

The SBS solution

SBS designed an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) System for the Peter Doherty Institute comprising 234 EDMI electricity meters connected to multi-drop RS485 serial communications networks on each floor of the building.  Each communications network is then connected to the building management system  LAN network via serial-Ethernet device servers.

Building facilities managers and university property and campus services staff can then view the sub-metering network utilising EziView software which provides access to real-time electrical data at each metering point and downloads interval energy data.  All Mk10A CT and WC meters installed in the building are configured to record real, apparent and reactive energy consumptions (kWh, kVAh and kvarh) in 15 minute intervals.  The large non-volatile memory within each meter allows a minimum of 500 days of energy interval data to be stored in each meter and readily downloaded for analysis in third party applications.

In addition, a second independent load survey within each meter records power factor and average current consumption in each 15 minute interval.