BP Research Campus

Naperville, IL

BP Campus, aerial view

Overview

Originally created by Amoco, the buildings at BP Naperville are decades old and have been continually upgraded to support research initiatives. As part of this effort, GBA has worked with BP’s representative CBRE in a series of projects improving the Building Automation Systems for multiple facilities.

BAS Upgrade, Design Reviews and Commissioning

A large-scale, phased series of projects resulted in upgrades to multiple Complexes (building clusters) and a central plant at BP Naperville. About 20 buildings were affected, including chemistry laboratories, fuel processing, and other sensitive facilities.

  • Initial aspects of the work involved updating the existing proprietary BAS backbone to a modern open-source BACnet network, including all the building-level controllers.
  • Next, controllers on all major pieces of equipment (air-handling units, chillers, pumping systems, and so on) were updated.
  • Finally, lower-level controllers were replaced, including terminal units and some process equipment that was tied to the BAS.
  • GBA was involved in design reviews and helped BP, the engineer of record, and the contractors develop a strategy to transition sensitive equipment to the new BAS without interruption. During and after these cutovers, GBA was on-site to verify that the systems came back on line.
  • Functional testing was used to ensure that systems were operating as intended, and that programming of the new controls was correct.
  • Through commissioning, GBA was able to identify multiple points and pieces of equipment that had been missed during the cutovers. The commissioning team also recommended improvements to sequences of operations.
  • Maintenance items and other equipment condition issues were noted.
  • GBA continues to work with the client to help ensure safe, energy efficient functioning of these important research facilities.

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