City of Strasbourg uses Topkapi to create energy reports

(Extract from the article Multisite BWG - An asset for local and regional authorities - J3E magazine, November 2011)
EXPERT'S OPINION: RENÉ CLAUDEL, Head of BWG of the City of Strasbourg.

The sites are of all kinds: schools, museums, sports facilities, swimming pools, administrative buildings... The installation of the system began in 1986. But from 1997 everything changed. Some 45 sites were then equipped with a BMS based on the products of a single manufacturer: Sicosde  Sulzer. This monopoly situation ended up being... costly.

As a result, in 1997 the decision was taken to open the system. Strasbourg chose Aréal's Topkapi supervisor and became completely free to select the automatons that suited it. Thus, in addition to the  "historic"  Sicos  (for which gateways have been developed), products from Landis & Staefa ,  Johnson Controls, Satchwell , Trend,  Sauter or Sofrel  and  Wago   coexisted alongside the  "historic"  Sicos. Over time, they have come to equip the new buildings. " The list can be further expanded because we proceed by invitation to tender for new installations, and any product compatible with the reference system we have established is eligible,"  says René Claudel. 

In charge of this BMS within the Building Maintenance department of the Strasbourg administration, he heads a team of four people who carry out all the programming of the PLCs and the supervisor. In Strasbourg, the evolution of the system is far from complete. The installation was initially motivated by the first oil shock and for technical reasons: to monitor the equipment to ensure flawless operation by detecting any breakdown as earlyas possible,"  adds René Claudel . Now, as part of the internal implementation of the community's energy-climate plan, energy monitoring has become a priority. » 

He thus uses the tools available on the supervisor to draw up precise energy balances and trigger an action for each drift, which was not practised until then. In doing so, he notes, for example, that determining heating instructions according to the activity and type of occupants in a gym has made it possible to reduce its consumption by 10 to 12%.

Another development is the switch to IP protocol, via the city's Intranet. "We are still using the initial communication mode based on the switched telephone network. As we interrogate all our sites every night, this solution ends up being very expensive. We already have about 20 IP sites and within two years all of them should be equipped. »
Finally, the system , whichuntil now was only dedicated to the management of boiler rooms of all kinds (gas, fuel oil, heat pump, wood, etc.), will gradually be opened up to other functions such as lighting and technical alarms for fire or intruder security systems in particular.

30,000 points in BMS (May 2001): In 1996, the city of Strasbourg decided to set up a centralised technical management system for its buildings. A study carried out by the Technical Installations Service of the Urban Community of Strasbourg with the assistance of the CEFIO company highlighted three fundamental points for the choice of a BMS product, and led to the selection of TOPKAPI:

• Ability to manage 40,000 information points with excellent response time, supported by a mock-up;
• Ability to manage remote sites intended to be connected to the switched telephone network, with time stamping of variables at the source;
• Structuring of the software allowing a very fast duplication of stations.

Now in place, the application includes two processing stations, and a client station accessing each of the two previous ones remotely.
For 41 buildings (Town Hall, Opera House, Schools, Swimming pools, etc.), the busiest position deals with heating and air conditioning, domestic hot water, CMV, lifts, fire and gas detection and the various technical equipment, and manages temperature set points, time programmes and boiler cascades.

With a total of nearly 30,000 variables on a single workstation, the supervisor's reaction times (of the order of one second) are far less than the incompressible delays linked to the communication media.

The agents of the Technical Installations Department of the Urban Community of Strasbourg, remote management section, who have fully developed the application, are particularly satisfied with the ease of use and the speed of implementation of Topkapi.
 

They will now work on connecting new buildings and integrating compatible equipment.
To date, AREAL has developed communication drivers for Johnson Control and Landis & Staefa .