Building Energy Management Systems

While we work with all the leading BEMS manufacturers, we’re a Siemens Expert Partner, with an experienced team trained in working with the latest Desigo CC™ platform.

We also have Apogee trained engineers and are the only UK company licensed to use Apogee software tools to offer software patches and upgrades and firmware upgrades. Additionally, we receive direct technical support, when required, from Siemens Building Technologies, USA.

We are one of the largest Trend Technology Centres in the UK and have an extensive network of trained engineers including many Trend experts who are fully qualified to deliver solutions for your needs.

We also utilise the world-beating integration capabilities of the Tridium Niagara platform, delivered through our regional offices with experienced central support from our in-house experts and from Tridium themselves.

See our technical page for further details of our product and solution capabilities.

Our background in energy, M&E, controls and product manufacture gives us a unique approach to BEMS projects. We always consider the operational state of the building in our system designs. We apply CIBSE Part F ‘Energy Efficiency in Buildings’ to ensure each design is not just the best in isolation but is also best for the building, its occupants and its intended purpose.

Our attention to detail can help you get the best results for your clients; closely reviewing the installation impact, building purpose, commissioning and handover plan, support package and maintenance strategy as integral parts of the system design.

Building operations, energy efficiency, and overall performance are at the heart of our BEMS solutions, contributing to the long-term success of a building. We also involve the building occupants and users and undertake seasonal commissioning to ensure systems and control strategies work correctly.

Our approach to the Soft Landings framework can run through your building delivery process which continues throughout the project, from inception to completion and beyond. This ensures all decisions made during the project are based on improving the operational performance of the building and meeting your client’s expectations.

We’re well aware that your clients want to protect the BEMS investments they’ve already made. As well as offering full support for Integral, AS1000 and Visonik legacy systems, we’re working with the latest systems that can extend the lifetime value of legacy platforms.

For example, Siemens’ Desigo CC pulls together legacy systems, creating a holistic approach that allows us to visualise performance in different disciplines in real time while creating synergies and reducing costs. We’re well positioned to help you take advantage of these capabilities either in new projects or when you’re upgrading legacy systems.

Having the reliable support of a financially stable FTSE 100 company is a strong attraction for the many consultants and specifiers we work with.

The scale of our resources ensures we have the time and expertise to get the management systems right for our customers and their buildings – no matter how large or small the project. Indeed, we approach all projects with the same rigor and expertise, putting the building at the heart of the solution. Whatever size of project you’re leading, you can rely on us to ensure it’s delivered on time and on budget and to the highest standards.

From the very start of any tender, we provide a clear process from fact finding to system design, installation, commissioning through to post-installation care. Every project is allocated a dedicated project resource with open channels of communication. We have over 50 project and contract managers supported by more than 140 engineers. So we have the resource pool to meet your requirements, however large or small.

While we have the capability, experience and reputation for delivering large scale projects, we treat even the smallest project with the same rigour and attention, putting the needs of the building and its occupants at the heart of every solution. See our technical page for further details of our product and solution capabilities.

We take a partnership approach to our work. Every project we undertake and every building we work in is different so it’s essential that we get close to our clients and completely understand their needs. We’re agile, too and pride ourselves on providing a high-value, high-quality solution while competing with smaller companies in the market. With the scale of our resources and the depth of talent within our team, we can provide expert input at every stage of the process.

Getting it right first time is at the heart of our approach to project delivery. Our focus is on high-quality engineering and we have a strong track record for installation, commissioning and testing. We also produce thorough Operation and Maintenance manuals and have extensive capability for post-installation care.

Safety is also a vital part of our offering and, as part of the SSE group, safety is a top priority. This ensures our staff, contractors and our reputation are protected and that your project is delivered safely at all times.

While we know price is important, our focus is always on delivering high-value engineering. We take an innovative approach to all our projects and have the skills and experience to provide exceptional solutions whatever the budget framework. Most importantly, because of our high level of expertise and thorough approach, we can offer high levels of cost certainty. Our cost plans are accurate because they are a true reflection of the project requirements.

We understand the finer detail of supply chain and installation requirements which also helps to ensure price control, certainty and consistency.

We have a long and successful track record in the BEMS industry stretching back over 20 years. As a key division within SSE, you can be assured we’ll be around for the long term and that our commercial contracts hold substance. We also have a comprehensive insurance package. All of this means we’re able to provide any level of ongoing support that’s required and thorough, reliable warranties for the work we undertake.

The BEMS systems and controls will be with the building long after the construction and warranty periods. We provide up to 18 months of post commissioning support to include seasonal commissions, performance reviews and comparison of project performance against actual to identify further optimisation and savings. This is paired with an immediate three months of standard performance reporting from occupation to help refine the controls strategy and develop a support service specification.

As a FTSE 100 company, our financial stability also allows us to spend the right amount of time to get the BEMS right for our customers and their buildings.

SSE Enterprise Energy Solutions is a key player in the UK’s building energy management sector. Our extensive resources and national coverage make us ideally positioned to take on even the largest BEMS projects.

Our UK-based Energy Management Centre is one of the largest and most successful in the country and constantly monitors and manages a wide range of complex estates around the country. We also have a national network of engineers and technicians and a dedicated energy optimisation team with access to the resources required to monitor and maintain your buildings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year.

Our expertise also ensures that we can thoroughly evaluate your entire built estate and design a leading-edge, future-proof building management system that protects your investment in legacy systems while delivering the highest level of modern controls.

We offer a free assessment of your existing BEMS system compared to BS EN 15232. The BS EN 15232 standard can be used to measure the impact of your BEMS on the energy efficiency of your buildings. A system that meets the energy efficiency class A for example, states that energy savings in office spaces can be up to 30% better than the standard class C. This information can be used to look at the potential payback of a proposed system and can also be used to assess an existing system.

By optimising energy usage, we can help you reduce your energy bills. These savings can quickly repay your investment in upgrades and ongoing energy management and can make a long-term direct impact on your bottom line.

But the benefits don’t stop at cost savings. Intelligent building control helps to regulate lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation – and that can improve user experience and productivity. Building Energy Management is also a clear commitment to sustainability, helping to you reduce your carbon footprint and improve your reputation for social responsibility.

Our integrated systems also improve operational efficiency. Because your building’s data can be monitored from a remote location, it minimises disruption for your staff while approximately 85% of issues can also be fixed remotely. Data analysis also improves awareness of the performance of plant, machinery and network-connected devices. This allows for early diagnosis of faults and reduces the risk of expensive failures and downtime.

An efficient management system also comes with vital alarm management, meaning fast response to key system alarms and dramatically improving business resilience. Your Building Energy Management System also generates the information you need to plan equipment upgrades, develop improved working practices and to extend equipment life cycles.

Our purpose written event handling software allows us to use industry rules to filter out nuisance alarms whilst your system is running. These rules can be taken from our library or written exclusively for your needs. By intelligently categorising your alarms we can drive efficiencies in labour utilisation and skillset identification.

Energy is a major business expense. In fact, it’s usually the third most expensive cost centre after people and property. So it’s vitally important that your buildings are optimised to use energy as efficiently as possible.

By optimising plant and equipment (and how it all works together) across your entire estate, we can help you to achieve significant reductions in costs. At the same time, you’ll gain from improvements to staff comfort, wellbeing and working conditions.

We’re a Siemens Expert Partner having demonstrated and documented our integration capabilities and our expertise within energy and IT environments. This includes critical environments like pharmaceutical projects and data centers.

Our engineering teams are fully trained in Siemens’ various BEMS products including the very latest Desigo CC™ building management platform which is capable of handling a lot more than energy management. It’s the first-ever management platform of its kind to integrate all disciplines of a building – from building automation to fire safety and security.

This holistic approach enables customers to visualise bottlenecks in different disciplines in real time, to create synergies and to reduce costs. We can offer complete new design solutions using Desigo CC and retrofit it to upgrade the control of legacy systems.

Desigo CC benefits

• Full integration capability
• Building comfort controls – power management, heating and cooling, air handling, lighting shading
• Security – access, video, intrusion
• Safety – mass notification capability
• Remote access to the management station with no reduction in functionality, what can be done locally can be done remotely
• Comprehensive trending package allows users to track the environmental and energy performance of their building.
• Graphics package with capability of customised images and enhanced visualisation experience
• Fast treatment for alarm management, will direct user to the affected plant item on the first listed graphic page
• Fully tested management station that complies with industry IT security standards.

Desigo Insight

The Desigo insight workstation is fully supported by our network of trained engineers and we can offer full design, installation, commissioning and support across the complete range of complimentary products such as PX and the compact range of controllers.

Our in-house software development team has written many Desigo-specific applications that complement the system’s excellent features and help give greater visibility to data from the connected networks.

This product has now entered into its service phase and we can help you manage a seamless migration to the latest Desigo CC product.

We’ve installed Apogee control solutions across a range of business sectors including government, retail, office buildings, pharmaceutical, hospitals, manufacturing and media. We can work on both large and small projects and have experience of 1 to 300+ controller systems.

Across our business we have 25 trained Apogee engineers and over 25 years’ experience of installation and support. We have direct Technical Support from Siemens Building Technologies in the USA and we are the only company in the UK licensed to use Apogee software tools to offer software patches and upgrades and firmware upgrades.

Because of our in-depth knowledge of the Apogee system we can protect the past and improve the future by being able to fast forward migration of older controller panels such as MBC/MEC to the new Apogee PXC controllers. These migration paths are fully supported with backward compatibility for existing hardware.

We have 10 Niagara certified engineers, and we’ve installed over 1,500 Niagara units across the UK.

The Tridium Niagara Framework® is quickly becoming one of the key operating systems of the Internet of Things. It connects and translates data from nearly any device or system—managing and optimising performance from buildings to factories to cities and beyond.

The Niagara Framework® connects the enterprise to provide better energy management, enhanced security, operational excellence, lower costs and end-to-end efficiency across multiple industries.

Niagara provides an advanced user interface which is both intuitive and customisable. It delivers data at your fingertips to find, visualise and control your operations while offering powerful security, development and support. It also offers easy integration and device management.

Legacy and Service Phase Systems: Integral AS1000/VISONIK

These products are all part of the Siemens (L&S, Staefa) Integral system. The Integral system was released into the market in 1987 but was phased out more than eight years ago. The service and support period ended in 2013. These systems can pose challenges when engineers with the requisite skills needed to correct system issues.

We can support the retired AS1000 (Staefa) and Visonik (Landis & Gyr) range of controls and their ancillary control devices. Our engineers have been trained on these BEMS systems and we still maintain the tools and software to support these products.

In the UK we currently maintain these systems for various customers. Should a component of one of these systems suffer an unrecoverable failure we can also suggest migration paths to current products to ensure that the system operation is maintained with minimal downtime or disruption.

We have over 15 Trend experts within our business, giving you the security of a fully-trained and qualified team working on your system.

The Trend system is extremely flexible and has just been updated over the last 18 months. The new IQ4 controllers cover a wider range of installations than previously available, from relatively small 16 point units up to 192 point controllers with a greater number of variants in between. With this range at our disposal we are able to install and support small, single controller sites such as a small courtroom all the way up to a full University campus.

The IQ4 range uses the latest communications and networking technology but also allows users to talk to their legacy networks. Using this mix of networking technologies allows the IQ range to be fully compatible with each other, therefore it is possible to have IQ1, IQ2, IQ3 & IQ4 all communicating on the same site giving our customers the flexibility to upgrade their systems all at once or over a period of time as budgets allow.

Our in-house experts have developed an easy-to-use, web-based event and alarm handling system. It provides system wide and customisable filters to reduce nuisance alarms allowing operators to concentrate on critical alarms. It also allows users to set-up bespoke event streams provides the ability to group or target your operator team by asset category or customer/site.

It provides Service Level Agreements which can be customised by customer or site with time to breach system notification, you can get alerts when operators take ownership of sites and on login/out activities and there is automatic escalation by email, text or voice and integration to third party facility management or field service management systems.

The user interface can also be styled to the customer’s corporate branding.