Background
An owner of a national office portfolio engaged Advastar while implementing an analytics platform across its building management systems. The programme was driven by energy performance commitments and by reporting obligations to investors, and the platform had been procured before any staffing plan existed.
The Challenge
The analytics platform was generating fault notifications that nobody could act on. The portfolio had energy reporting capability but no one able to correct the underlying control sequences the platform kept flagging, so the same faults reappeared week after week and confidence in the system fell. The owner had scoped the hire as an energy manager alone, which would have produced better reporting on the same unresolved problems. Measurement and verification capability was also needed to substantiate the reported savings.
The Solution
Advastar raised the gap during intake rather than filling the role as briefed, pointing out that flagged faults require someone able to fix a sequence and that no such person existed in the organization. An energy manager with measurement and verification experience was recruited to own reporting and substantiation. A fault detection and diagnostics analyst was placed to work across the portfolio. On our recommendation the owner added a controls engineer, a role not in the original plan, to correct the sequences the analytics identified. All three were screened on portfolio-scale rather than single-building experience.
The Outcome
Flagged faults are now closed rather than accumulating, and repeat notifications have fallen substantially. Reported energy savings are substantiated through a documented measurement and verification method that has satisfied investor reporting requirements. The controls engineer role, which the owner had not planned to fill, has proved the one that made the platform useful.