US Postal Service Information/Accounting Center - Eagan, MN
Systems integration yields new levels of reliability and energy efficiency.
About US Postal IASC
The 352,000 ft2 US Postal Information/Accounting Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Eagan, MN first opened for operation in 1998. The state-of-the-art building provides facilities for over 800 employees and subcontractors that serve four key postal service center groups: support (human resources and administration), information technology (programming and troubleshooting), computer operations (including printing, call center, LAN and communications), and accounting (payroll and finance).
Key Achievements:
Achieved energy efficiency of $2.40/ ft2, nearly half the national average for similar facilities, per Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) standards.
Integrated complex control and monitoring of numerous electrical and mechanical systems, including HVAC, chillers, lighting, UPS, circuit protection, and fire system monitoring.
Assured the highest levels of HVAC system reliability for the data center's critical computer room operations.
Earned more than $120,000 in electric utility rebates for energy efficiency measures, with more rebates expected.
Provided expandable automation system capacity and functionality to accommodate future facility growth.
Minimized overall maintenance personnel needs and system maintenance costs.
Improved productivity of facility management and maintenance personnel.
Robert Blaszczak, Facility Manager, US Postal Service Management Support Service Center
"We're very proud of our results. We've been able to keep reliability and security as top priorities, yet our energy costs per square foot are nearly half the industry average. Much of the credit belongs to the integration strategies and the APOGEE system from Siemens."
New integrated system successfully incorporates seemingly incompatible features
The US Postal Service's newest Information and Accounting Service Center (IASC) near Minneapolis has become one of the finest models in multi-use facilities by incorporating two normally incompatible features: high reliability and high energy efficiency.
After nearly a decade of strategic planning for flexibility and integration of all building systems, postal officials got what they wanted from their now-largest national data center: mechanical and electrical redundancy with an additional level of redundancy, and the energy needed to operate the facility at nearly half the cost per square foot of comparable, multi-use data/office facilities ($2.40/ft2 compared to the national average of $4.50/ ft2).
Open-system architecture of APOGEE helps integrate electrical and mechanical systems
These remarkable results were achieved principally through a design theme of flexibility, combined with the open-system architecture of the APOGEE building automation system from Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. According to Bob Blaszczak, facility manager of the IASC, "Coordination of all the electrical and mechanical systems, as well as the various subcontractors, took an extraordinary effort", he says. "Siemens stayed involved with us as a partner, especially during the first critical year of operation, whereas many of the other vendors completed only the tasks required by their contracts. Siemens took the extra steps needed to help us uncover and correct many construction or design flaws that can crop up in a design/build project of this size."
A key issue in developing the IASC facility was the effective integration of the critical electrical and mechanical systems into the APOGEE system, including HVAC and centrifugal chillers, static circuit breakers and switchgear, high-efficiency lighting, power quality systems, five emergency generators, and connections to the fire alarm system. To assure the highest reliability, the facility's power needs are served by two separate main power feeds, transfer switchgear, and an isolated redundant uninterruptible power supply scheme that provides not only greater security of quality power, but also the ability to manage and balance loads for optimum cost savings.
Integration ensures redundancy and uninterruptible operation in key computer room
The core mission of the Center -- payroll for over 900,000 postal employees -- is located in its 60,000 ft2 of raised floor computer room that demands specialized, failsafe cooling from four 450-ton chillers. Prudent application of variable frequency drives in other, less critical areas provides the high energy efficiencies where possible without sacrificing reliability. Each of two groups of generators, combined with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system, has parallel switching gear with programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to manage the starting and loading of the main supply bus. The computers are further shielded by transient-voltage surge suppressors that protect the facility's electrical gear. In addition, two cooling sources feed the computer room's HVAC systems, each controlled and sequenced to return to failsafe operation if either cooling source fails.
The result is that the APOGEE integration scheme ensures redundancy and uninterruptible operation of the computer room while accommodating growth in computer loads, with ample capacity for future equipment needs.
Four APOGEE Insight® workstations, located strategically throughout the site, provide the IASC maintenance staff the ability to check the operational status of any of the integrated systems and equipment. Explains Les Kapaun, IASC plant maintenance engineer, the Insight workstation software affords advanced, facility-wide levels of integrated control and monitoring. From any of these workstations, his staff can manage the operation of all major vendors' equipment, not just Siemens. "Insight," he adds, "then integrates the data into a central location so that we can get the optimum in facility management and control."
As Kapaun sums up, "While our energy costs are already at new record lows for facilities such as this, we have the sophisticated management tools in place with the APOGEE system to achieve even greater energy savings through trending, logging, scheduling and reporting. It's a continuous process of refinement and expansion, but the workstation interface is the key."