Smart City Malta is a state-of-the-art information technology and media city built on the models of Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City. Smart City has managed to create ‘knowledge-based business townships’ using the best facilities.

 

ESI was brought on board to deliver an integrated Building Energy Management System (BEMS) for the first phase of the project, SCM01. The system had to provide Smart City with optimum energy efficiency, as well as provide the security and safety needed for such a vast project. The blue print specified that the system needed to be an IP converged solution.

The solution put forward by ESI was an IP converged system that brought together a BEMS built on Tridium Niagara framework and Honeywell ProWatch Security Management Suite, to provide Smart City with an integrated solution that would offer the business with opportunities for value add, efficiencies and scalability. The client requested a solution that was built around world renowned brands and that provided a future proof platform in order to eventually allow the system to be rolled out across the entire campus.

Whilst integrating access control, video surveillance and intrusion detection is standard practice within the ProWatch environment, integrating the BEMS and safety systems was a completely new concept. ESI’s high level engineering capability made this possible and earned them international recognition for this integrated solution. They were able to scope and develop the integration concept which became an ESI proprietary solution.

Honeywell ProWatch was installed to manage all of SCM security needs. The security system integrated with BEMS which also monitored other systems including, fire alarm, emergency lighting, Emergency back-up power supplies, water flooding alarm, IT infrastructure and voice alarm systems. The solution was designed so that valuable information from each system is available to each of the other systems, offering both read and write functionality over the IP infrastructure available at Smart City.

The solution also integrates with the Fire Alarm system, which in the case of an incident triggers off all necessary protocols to contain and manage the danger in accordance with the predefined safety procedures, making this environment safer for the occupants.

The solution provided Smart City with a future proof solution that was flexible and scalable and could be rolled out across the entire campus, in both commercial and residential applications. The solution also presented Smart City with a number of business opportunities and value add through additional services which may be introduced via the solution such as Credit and Payment .

The flexibility and rich functionality of the solution allow the facility operators to maintain an optimum energy efficient and comfortable environment within Smart City. It also allowed them circumvent issues with other third party systems in order to maintain these optimum operational levels until certain issues were sorted.

This solution has enabled Smart City to obtain LEED accreditation (Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design), the first building in Malta to obtain such a status. This accreditation was important to the business and provided an essential USP and differentiator to attract leading corporate clients to the facilities.

“Facility management is typically considered an overhead, whilst most can also appreciate the importance of investing in such systems and continually maintaining and upgrading them in order to ensure your facilities retain their competitive edge. The solution ESI has provided us with at Smart City allows us to have visibility across the entire campus and manage the facility’s efficiency in an optimum manner, which is then reflected in the bottom line.” said Ing. Norman Zammit, Facility Manager at Smart City Malta.

“It has also provided the business with additional business opportunities and added functionality outside of the original requirements, that we are now able to explore and that will provide us with value add.”