Case study: squeezing efficiency out of high-performance buildings

Energy management software company BuildingIQ was earlier this month awarded Best Commercial Energy Efficiency Project at the Energy Efficiency Council’s national awards for an energy optimisation project at the already high-performance National Information and Communications Technology Australia building in Sydney.

Using energy optimisation software, an 18.8 per cent reduction in energy use was achieved in a building that already had a 5.5 star NABERS Energy rating.

So how were the last drops of efficiency squeezed out of this already highly efficient building?

The project

The NICTA building is located at the Australian Technology Park, a business and technology centre at Eveleigh, which comprises five buildings in a campus-like setting, home to a range of high-tech startups.

BuildingIQ was brought in to raise the energy efficiency of four of the five buildings, as part of ATP’s target of a 30 per cent energy reduction by 2020. The Predictive Energy Optimisation software the company uses involves a self-learning energy optimisation model that make adjustments to the building management system to reduce HVAC energy costs, incorporating electricity cost, weather and utility data.

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