ARMONK, N.Y. and PITTSBURGH, March 5,
2015 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a
new smarter buildings partnership with Carnegie Mellon University
(CMU), the first higher education institution to pioneer use of a
new cloud-based analytics system for reducing energy and facility
operating costs.
The university expects to save approximately 10 percent on
utilities, nearly $2 million
annually, when the IBM system is fully deployed across 36 buildings
on its Pittsburgh campus.
"On its own, the deployment of this technology will drive
significant energy and operational savings with a very attractive
return on investment. Just as important, improved building
performance enhances the occupant experience and provides a much
more effective education and research environment," said
Donald Coffelt, associate vice
president for Carnegie Mellon
University's Facilities Management Services. "IBM is a clear
leader in the field of advanced building analytics and facilities
systems integration. This technology offers us important gains in
initiatives related to advanced infrastructure systems research,
the Pittsburgh 2030 initiative and
a more proactive building and infrastructure management
model."
Buildings are expected to become the largest consumer of global
energy by 2025, according to the National Science and Technology
Council. Systems such as elevators, HVAC, lighting and alarms
constantly report data across building networks. However, most
organizations do not use the data as well as they could to monitor
overall building performance, identify trends in building use, or
improve customer satisfaction.
Carnegie Mellon University will
address these challenges by using the new IBM Building Management
Center delivered on the IBM SoftLayer cloud to monitor thousands of
data points from building automation and control systems. The
Building Management Center will also detect system problems such as
simultaneous heating and cooling not identified by other means, and
proactively trigger corrective actions.
The new technology will be piloted in nine buildings and then
extended to 36 buildings across campus. The initial application of
the Building Management Center will focus on HVAC systems and later
will extend to lighting, water and other utilities. The system is
scheduled for full implementation in about three years.
"IBM and Carnegie Mellon University
share a commitment to innovation and a rich history of
collaboration," said Wayne Balta,
vice president, IBM Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product
Safety. "Given CMU's renown as a world leader in engineering and
computer science, this new collaboration for smarter buildings is a
natural fit. CMU recognized early on that a college campus shares
several things in common with a city. Just as Smarter Cities are
using data and analytics to improve diverse aspects of their
operations, CMU will harness data and analytics delivered via cloud
computing to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of building
management across campus. We've done this within IBM and know it to
be good for our business as well as the environment."
The Smarter Buildings Initiative supports CMU's
technology-enhanced education and research focus, as well as its
commitment to sustainability. The initiative will connect with
research already underway at the university's Smart Infrastructure
Institute, of which IBM is a founding partner, and the Center for
Building Performance and Diagnostics. In addition, faculty and
students affiliated with CMU's multidisciplinary Metro21
initiative, which seeks to design and develop solutions affecting
the economy and quality of life in metropolitan areas, are planning
to use data generated from the Building Management Center in their
research.
CMU's work with IBM supports the university's role as a founding
partner in the Oakland expansion
of the Green Building Alliance's Pittsburgh 2030 District. Pittsburgh is one of just five U.S. cities to
launch 2030 districts, which challenge partner organizations to
achieve 50 percent reductions in energy use, water consumption and
transportation-related emissions by the year 2030.
The IBM Building Management Center solution is a pre-built
solution delivered as a service using IBM's powerful analytics and
asset management capabilities and IBM Global Business Services
expertise. The cloud infrastructure connects seamlessly and
privately to on-premise sources of data from building systems. It
also provides visibility and access for the best performance,
scalability and control with the required security.
"This is the newest in a series of cloud-based Smarter Cities
management centers including transportation, water and emergency
management designed to help organizations quickly begin using their
own data for new insight and improved decision making," said
Michael Dixon, general manager, IBM
Smarter Cities. "The Building Management Center is designed for
both public and private sector buildings and campuses of all sizes.
It delivers a new level of understanding of building assets and
energy usage with unprecedented flexibility."
IBM has established a deep portfolio of Big Data and Analytics
technology that spans research and development, solutions and
software. IBM has invested $24
billion to build its capabilities in Big Data and Analytics
through R&D and more than 30 acquisitions. Today, more than
15,000 analytics consultants, 6,000 industry solution business
partners and 400 IBM mathematicians are helping clients use big
data to transform their organizations.
About Carnegie Mellon
University: Carnegie Mellon
(www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked university with
programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business to
public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000
students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit
from a small faculty-to-student ratio and an education
characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions
for real world problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and
innovation. A global university, Carnegie
Mellon's campus in the United
States is in Pittsburgh,
Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley, Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia,
Australia, Europe and Mexico.
About IBM
For more information about the IBM Building
Management Center please visit
http://www.ibm.com/buildingmanagement
To join the conversation about IBM Smarter Cities please follow
@IBMSmartCities on Twitter as well as the hashtag
#SmarterCities
Contact
Holli Haswell
IBM
hhaswell@us.ibm.com
720-396-5485
Abby Simmons
Carnegie Mellon University
abbysimmons@cmu.edu
412-268-4290
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SOURCE IBM