EcoXpert Awards: AZZO wins “Project of the Year”

Last blog, I wrote about our recent Digital Power Leadership Summit and three of the EcoXpert award winners. These awards are voted on by fellow Master-level EcoXpert partners from around the world, so they carry special meaning.

In this blog, I am featuring the top prize: Project of the Year, which was awarded to AZZO for their project at one of Australia's leading banks. AZZO is an international company that specializes in energy monitoring, power controls and system audit. Their successes in a range of industries have helped their customers become leaders in energy management with operational control over their environmental footprints.

For this project, AZZO's client was facing some difficult energy challenges at their headquarters building with over 130,000 sqm of commercial office space. First was the major energy load-the building had 42 chillers, 150 air conditioning units, and over 180 VSDs. These loads contributed to high levels of harmonic distortion. These power quality issues put a major strain on the onsite cogeneration units. What resulted were costly repairs, power outages, and penalties. Another vendor had been responsible for the installation of the original Active Harmonic Filters (AHF) units, which were meant to counteract the effects of harmonic distortion. Issues with that original design and installation were flawed and resulted in catastrophic failures and unsafe site evacuations that further impacted facility operations.

James DiLiberto, AZZO's CEO, assessed the problem: 'Harmonic filters weren't the problem at all. It was bad design and lack of a monitoring solution… Dust and heat are the biggest risk to the successful operation of Active Harmonic Filters (AHFs).'

Faced with such difficult challenges, the bank decided it needed a comprehensive audit and overhaul of the building systems. Due to the complexity and high sensitivity of the site, infrastructure could not be put at risk during the operation. That's where AZZO came in. AZZO took an outdated, poorly monitored, inefficient system, and replaced it with carefully designed EcoStruxure architecture.

The system overhaul began with a comprehensive power quality audit. In order to do this, AZZO needed a way to get high-quality data. At the time, the client had no metering or monitoring of their AHFs. AZZO deployed ten of its Portable Metering kits to support the audit, connected through 4G to a cloud-hosted version of Power Monitoring Expert (PME). 'This process allowed the customer to sit in the driver's seat of the software they'll be using in the future,' described James DiLiberto. Part of the power quality report included competitive analysis, pitting PME's performance against three other market competitors.

'We had to be involved with the customer very intimately in order to build their trust. This approach that we took really differentiated us from other companies.'

-James DiLiberto, AZZO CEO

After the audit, AZZO implemented the full stack of EcoStruxure technology. They installed a total of 21 AccuSine PCSn and PCS+ units. The new AHFs are supported by the latest ION9000T and PM8000 power quality meters. AZZO also integrated AHF and power quality monitoring, connected devices with edge control, and coordinated it all under a suite of digital services.

'The architecture in each of these areas runs chillers, mechanical service boards, and PCS+ units. In the main switch boards that feed the common areas with neutral harmonics, the banks of master-enslaved PCSns and ION9000 at the transformer level catch high-speed transients.'

-J. DiLiberto

The new EcoStruxure architecture interfaces with the site BMS, Power Operation, and Power Monitoring Expert, all on the same server. All of the information is connected in Power Advisor and AZZO Mission Control, which is monitored remotely by AZZO through their service plan. The solution provides visual reports and alarms to alert users whenever anything goes wrong, providing the bank with a complete asset monitoring solution and peace of mind.

The result of all this effort? The bank's headquarters is now a modern, cost-efficient, and safe building. Deployment was smooth, with no site or critical infrastructure downtime. No more need to worry about fires breaking out in overheated electrical rooms, or power outages caused by varied loads. Now, everything is monitored and supported in real time with EcoStruxure's advanced technology stack.

This project was an impressive success story and the award was certainly well deserved. Congratulations to AZZO, our other winners, and all the partners who made it through an incredibly challenging year. Given the quality and expertise of our global EcoXpert partners, I expect to see many more successes in the future!