SBS provides accurate and reliable data to building and environmental management systems. (Telstra One Tower)

Smart Building Services (SBS) provided data communication services for the Telstra One Building in September 2009.  The building has a network of 264 electricity meters measuring electricity, cold water, hot water and non-potable water consumption for all tenancies within the building.

Project specifications

Telstra One Tower building management sought an embedded network solution to accurately bill tenants by measuring energy consumption across the site and to reduce energy costs to comply with NABERS© targets.  It was also a requirement  to be able to report on excess water consumption in order to manage water usage appropriately.  Data collected from the site would be used to bill tenants for utility.

The SBS solution

SBS designed a complete metering system involving the installation of up to six communication loops to provide accurate and timely data.  All water meters are connected to a relevant electricity meter to enable all utility data to be recorded on the same metering network. 

The Telstra One Tower has 264 electricity sub-meters, 76 cold water meters, 57 hot water meters, 28 non-potable water meters, 4 main electricity transformer meters and 2 main water supply check meters.  Data is recovered from the site on a daily basis, with billing data exported monthly.  All data is available through the SBS data web site.  Due to the complexity of the design of the metering system, a series of metering loops was necessary to provide accurate and timely data.

All meters used for invoicing tenants must be pattern approved.  EDMI Mk10 electricity meters were used to satisfy pattern approval requirements.  In addition this approval, each Mk10 electricity meter has up to three pulsing inputs available.  This enabled the logging of cold, hot and non-potable water to be logged on the same metering system as electricity.

The metering networks installed at the Telstra One Tower became true multi-utility recording networks, enabling an efficient method of collecting various data sets using the one data platform.

As part of the data collection program, a leak detection monitoring program was set in place to notify building management of previously undetected water leaks in the building.  This has further added to the efficiency in which the building operates.