Press Release Back Number(2006)

"Building Management System for Accommodating Partial Updates" Developed
- Updates of building management systems to be more affordable -

August 21, 2006
Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

Chubu Electric has developed a "building management system for accommodating partial updates" to promote energy conservation and more efficient and affordable operations management for small and medium size buildings.*

Presently we are beginning to implement this system in our own buildings for better energy conservation and more efficient operations management. In the future, we will spread the use of this system beyond our own buildings by recommending it to customers as an energy solution.

Building management systems are means of integrating, monitoring and controlling the air conditioning, heating and electric power equipment of a building. In recent years, there has been a growing need for energy conservation and operations management efficiency, and greater functionality is required for purposes of energy management, energy conservation control and remote control.

Most building management systems installed in existing buildings, however, are built to their manufacturers' unique specifications and therefore require that customers make special orders to achieve higher functionality by system modification. In addition, when buildings are updated, there have been few high function systems suitable for small and medium size buildings, and those that do exist have been very costly.

The new system uses a recently developed "cooperative controller" and "signal I/O device" that enable the use of cooperative control linked to the existing building control system. The existing system needs no modification, allowing users to update at low cost.

The "cooperative controller" was developed jointly with Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. (1048, Oaza Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka) and the "signal I/O device" with Watanabe Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (6-16-19 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo).

*Designed for buildings with total floor space up to about 20,000m²

Major features of the newly developed system are as follows.

1. Allows partial updates • Allows gradual updates starting with the portions most needing them, also accommodates complete updates 2. Brings high functionality to existing building management systems • Automatic energy conservation control (control is linked to lighting, air conditioning, etc., offers minimum ventilation control based on indoor CO2 concentration, etc.) • Remote control (loading on a web server enables operation and monitoring from a remote PC over an IP network) • Energy management (offers trend graph display, equipment performance evaluation, etc.) 3. Lower initial costs • Initial costs about 30% lower than earlier systems (as modeled in Chubu Electric buildings)

*Visitors to ENE-WAY 2006 at Fukiage Hall of the Nagoya Trade & Industry Center can see the system on display August 23-25.