The Benefits of Bringing Intelligent Automation into Government Buildings

Ensuring government buildings function day in and day out is a complex task. That’s why intelligent automation in government buildings is critical for alleviating the challenges of conventional building automation systems (BASs).

Government buildings often contain legacy systems that can result in high energy consumption and inefficient operations. Not only does this lead to unnecessarily high spending, it can come at significant environmental cost; the federal government is the largest real estate owner in the United States, which means widespread efficiency efforts could have a big impact on total carbon emissions. Leading the way in reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment  would also have a profound cultural impact, providing an example for private industry to follow. 

Yet government agencies may be hesitant to deploy solutions, like more robust automation, that would address these issues due to short-term budget concerns. So, how do you intelligently and securely automate and streamline building systems to produce bottom-line results while remaining mindful of budget constraints? 

The Benefits of Intelligent Automation in Government Buildings

Smart technologies are opening up opportunities for intelligent automation that transforms the way buildings function. Although many commercial buildings have been quick to adopt these technologies, government buildings are often playing some catch-up. But it’s worth doing.

The General Services Administration (GSA) reports that smart buildings can lead to significant benefits for government entities, including:

• Greater operational efficiency
• Greater tenant satisfaction
• Better fault detection
• Alleviating legacy equipment and controls issues
• Achieving departmental and administration goals for sustainability
• Ensuring optimal efficiency based on occupancy patterns, utility rates, and weather forecasts
• Reducing energy and utility usage and costs 
• Improving equipment and operational resilience
• Enhancing visitor experiences
• Improving productivity and uptime
• Minimizing cybersecurity risks

These benefits can have a meaningful and positive impact on diverse stakeholders, including the general public.

Creating Intelligent Automation

Taking advantage of new technologies can seem overwhelming, particularly when dealing with complex building systems that must stay online at all times. These are some key considerations for integrating smart technologies that power intelligent automation in government buildings.

Advanced Analytics

Analytics lies at the heart of intelligent automation. An advanced analytics platform monitors all connected components in your building and presents data via a single-pane-of-glass dashboard to reveal intelligent insights about building conditions and critical equipment, such as HVAC, lighting, and access control. 

Intelligent analytics with advanced fault detection and diagnostics can also improve efficiency by:

• Detecting anomalies as soon as they happen
• Identifying the root causes of malfunctions
• Making automatic adjustment to setpoints
• Suggesting solutions when manual intervention is required

With these capabilities, an advanced platform can transform maintenance and troubleshooting. Not only does this allow maintenance teams to work more efficiently, it helps minimize waste created by equipment performance. An intelligent analytics platform allows you to see the impact of this by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), including energy consumption and utility costs.

IoT Devices and Sensors

IoT devices and smart sensors can securely gather data related to variables like occupancy levels, temperature, humidity, and multiple compounds that relate to indoor air quality (IAQ). An analytics platform can use this data and correlate these variables with building conditions and enable operators to easily trigger adjustments based on the data gathered from those disparate systems. Better yet, these adjustments can be automated for buildings that are comfortable with that level of service. For example, ventilation can be programmed to increase when occupancy in a meeting room reaches a certain threshold, and air filtration systems can be programmed to kick on when air quality readings show elevated levels of certain particulates. As a result, building operators can create safe and comfortable spaces before occupants even notice there’s an issue. 

Machine Learning

Machine learning is changing the way systems operate in public buildings. When advanced ML algorithms are applied to building data, an analytics platform can learn how buildings behave and refine automation according to both actual and predicted conditions. This can allow government entities to realize significant energy savings, allocate resources more effectively, and achieve performance goals continually over time without having to make the same investment as the original up-front cost to deploy the integrated analytics system.

Security

Government buildings are common targets of hacking and other security threats. Creating a secure unified system is essential to protecting buildings, occupants, and information. This means partnering with a master system integrator (MSI) committed to implementing robust security protocols. 

The Power of Integration

For government buildings, it may be possible to integrate existing legacy systems rather than replace entire building automation systems. Integrating with a smart platform that includes analytics can improve the ROI by enabling operators to easily track what’s going on throughout their buildings. If energy and operational efficiency are a goal, cost doesn’t have to be a limiting factor. With onPoint Analytics, Jetstream, and MSI services, Buildings IoT can design and deploy successful solutions and bring intelligent automation to government buildings. 

Buildings IOT offers the best technologies and services for bringing intelligent automation into government buildings. Contact our team of experts today.