An EMS upgrade paired with a custom utility incentive.
Lincoln Property Company's building at 400 Crown Colony Drive in Quincy: $83,000 in annual savings and a 2.7-year payback.
- Client
- Lincoln Property Company
- Location
- Quincy, MA
- Sector
- Commercial office
- Scope
- EMS upgrade, four energy-saving measures
The complaint.
An aging EMS that couldn’t keep up.
Lincoln Property Company is an international real estate firm with a diverse portfolio of commercial properties. Their building at 400 Crown Colony Drive in Quincy, Massachusetts, had served tenants well, but its aging energy management system could not run the building efficiently, and utility costs showed it.
Lincoln brought FMC in to look at the HVAC and the controls, find where the savings were, and upgrade the EMS without disturbing the tenants already in the building.
What stood in the way
- An aging EMS that could not run the building efficiently
- Utility costs that reflected the inefficiency
- Tenants already in place who could not be disturbed
- A fixed budget the work had to fit inside
What we found.
Four energy-saving measures worth doing.
The work had to fit Lincoln's budget and keep indoor comfort intact. After several detailed site walkthroughs, our team assessed the existing HVAC mechanical systems and identified four energy-saving measures.
How we got there
- Several detailed walkthroughs of the site
- A full assessment of the existing HVAC mechanical systems
- Four energy-saving measures identified and costed
- Indoor comfort held intact throughout
What we did.
Four measures, one BACnet system tying them together.
The four measures ran from the condenser water loop up to the cooling towers, with a new BACnet-based EMS underneath them so the new equipment and the existing equipment could be seen and controlled from one place.
Scope of work
- Isolation valves on the condenser water loop at every heat pump
- Variable speed drives on the main condenser water pumps
- A BACnet-based EMS with no proprietary lock-in
- Demand controlled ventilation on the make-up air system
- Modernized cooling tower equipment
Installed isolation valves on the condenser water (CNW) loop at every heat pump and added variable speed drives to main condenser water pumps.
Installed a BACnet-based EMS so the new equipment and the existing equipment can be seen and controlled from one place. No proprietary lock-in.
Deployed demand controlled ventilation (DCV) for the make-up air system to reduce unnecessary ventilation during low-occupancy periods.
Modernized cooling tower equipment to improve heat rejection efficiency and reduce water and fan energy consumption.
The result.
A custom incentive from National Grid and a 2.7-year payback.
FMC worked directly with National Grid to develop a custom utility incentive sized to the project's scope and its savings potential. That negotiation is what made the project financially feasible.
National Grid agreed to cover 43.5% of the total project cost through the custom incentive and offered a 0% interest on-bill repayment plan for the remaining balance. With annual savings of $83,000, the payback period came to 2.7 years.
The incentive was part of the scoping conversation from day one, not paperwork filed at the end. That is what made the numbers work.
How the money worked
- A custom incentive sized to the project's own savings potential
- National Grid covering 43.5% of the total project cost
- A 0% interest on-bill repayment plan for the balance
- The incentive scoped from day one, not filed at the end
Have a building that could use a second look?
Aging HVAC and climbing utility bills are what we walked into at Crown Colony; we can tell you what we would look at first in your building.