Pennington County will fund the project out of energy and operational savings that will result from Honeywell-led modernization efforts in all 14 of the county's primary buildings. These savings - expected to total more than $700,000 annually - are guaranteed by Honeywell under a performance contract with the county, ensuring the work will not impact capital budgets or require additional taxpayer dollars. The project, the latest in Honeywell's 20-year relationship with the county, which includes other retrofits, building controls work, and services, is currently underway and is expected to be completed by early 2007.

"With Honeywell's help, we can make the necessary upgrades and improvements to keep our buildings functioning safely and efficiently without expenditures that would overextend our buildings," said Mike Peterson, director of buildings and grounds for Pennington County. "This type of project is ideal for municipalities that want to maintain top-performing facilities."

Pennington County spans 2,700 square miles and serves nearly 90,000 residents. The energy upgrades will affect buildings throughout the county, including the Public Health Building, Juvenile Service Center, Public Safety Building, County Jail, and County Courthouse. Under the contract, Honeywell will install energy-efficient lighting that will decrease energy consumption for this type of equipment by 45 percent while providing better illumination. Project work also includes upgrading or replacing leaky fixtures and valves, and retrofitting chillers and boilers. To reduce heating and cooling losses, Honeywell also will repair cracks in building exteriors, and weatherstrip windows and doors.

In addition to energy retrofits, Honeywell will tie security and building automation systems together at eight county facilities through its Enterprise Buildings Integratorâ„¢ (EBI), a management platform that integrates core building functions like HVAC, energy, life safety, and security. Using EBI, operators can be more productive by viewing and controlling these systems from a single workstation - either onsite or remotely.

Specifically, the security upgrade includes tying the card access controls and door security equipment at the facilities into EBI. Honeywell also will integrate all camera and surveillance functions onto the existing closed-circuit television (CCTV) system - Honeywell Digital Video Manager (DVM), an EBI component - to give the county the ability to view, record, play back, and store video clips in real-time from one location.

Moving to a common operating platform is also expected to improve staff monitoring capabilities across county buildings, such as the County Jail, which is comprised of two sections that currently run on separate security systems.

"This setup will take some of the burden off the staff while still maintaining a high standard of efficiency and security," Peterson said. "Operators have a difficult time managing multiple systems, but EBI and DVM let us see everything as it happens so we can respond faster to issues in any of our facilities."

Finally, the performance contract involves extensive maintenance on new and existing equipment. And it includes software support for EBI through Honeywell Service Online, a new suite of service tools, to ensure Pennington receives all software patches and upgrades when they become available, keeping systems secure and up-to-date.

"Doing more with less is a common issue for counties like Pennington, as they seek to maintain a high standard of comfort, efficiency, and safety while working with limited resources," said Joe Puishys, president of Honeywell Building Solutions. "Performance contracts help municipalities address this issue by providing the necessary financing for large-scale projects without the added investment burden."

Publication date: 06/19/2006