At the heart of the new building management system (BMS) installed at Chevron’s new European headquarters in Aberdeen, is its ability to contact security staff, no matter where they are on site, to immediately advise of any critical alarms. The BMS, supplied by Priva Intelligent Buildings and installed by Campbell Control Services Ltd, uses SMS (Short Messaging Service) to contact security staff, via their mobile phones, while they patrol the site. A short message provides sufficient information for the staff to either take immediate remedial action or contact the site’s service and maintenance provider.
The Priva BMS, comprising six Compri HX4, two Compri HX3 and two Compri HX8E controllers, has been installed within two new office buildings. During office hours all change-of-state and critical alarms report to a nominated PC within the facilities management department. It is only when the premises are vacated that the alarm reporting procedure is switched to the mobile phones of the security staff.
The success of this remote messaging has led Chevron to consider extending the remote connection to include use by suppliers. For example, during the BMS installation period Campbell Control Services utilised the modem connection to remotely check the BMS installation, initialise diagnostics and make programme adjustments as required. This enabled the company to quickly respond to any adjustments from their office in Glasgow, achieving valuable savings, in time and engineering costs, as their engineers need not travel to site to complete the work.
The new buildings are providing fully air conditioned office accommodation plus two IT suites. Heating and cooling is via a fan coil unit (FCU) system, with 240 Comforte CX controllers managing the FCUs. These in turn are connected to a mix of Comset CX room units and standard room sensors for local control. The IT suites come complete with their own dedicated, self controlled, air conditioning systems that have been interfaced with the Priva BMS for monitoring purposes using a Modbus connection; all other HVAC services are directly monitored and controlled by the BMS.