Project Details

15 Million Square Feet

True Building Intelligence

500+ Million Data Transactions Per Day

Payback Under 2 Years

Facility Management Efficiency

Microsoft deployed an Energy-Smart Building strategy, adding an analytical layer on top of their existing building management systems without the need to replace existing infrastructure.

DB Engineering has worked with Microsoft on their Energy-Smart Building strategy since its inception in 2009. Since that time, Microsoft has executed a pilot and integrated over 125 buildings (15,000,000+ square feet) of corporate office and specialty space, in the Puget Sound region and around the world.

The Microsoft approach aggregates data and powerful analytics to add “intelligence” to their existing building infrastructure, transforming the way building are managed. DB Engineering worked with the team to empower building engineers to take a more targeted, data driven approach to their work. This has delivered substantial cost savings, while helping Microsoft achieve carbon reduction targets with relatively low capital investments.

The new analytics layer which DB Engineering helped create, enables Microsoft to analyze building data to generate actionable insights that save energy and cut costs. The system addresses energy consumption in three specific ways:

• Fault detection and diagnosis to enable timely and targeted interventions in cases of faulty or under-performing building equipment.
• Alarm management to prioritize the many notifications generated by the existing building systems and point engineers to the most impactful issues.
• Energy management through the systematic tracking and optimization of building energy consumption and performance over time, while changing the behavior of building occupants with visual dashboards and benchmarks.

Buildings are equipped with hundreds of sensors and controls. Companies are leaving money on the table if they do not use this data more holistically to optimize their infrastructure. By applying analytics to make buildings smart (or energy-smart, to be more specific), companies can save billions and significantly reduce environmental impact.