Commissioning

Commissioning Department

The department specializes in offering commissioning and validation of multi-disciplinary engineering

The department focuses on engineering and includes an engineering team experienced in data centers and critical facilities.

What is commissioning?

Commissioning is a quality-oriented well-defined systematic process aimed at ensuring that all the building’s system work in consort in accordance with the needs of the project, the specifications, the design and the engineering specifications. The process is managed by the commissioning team in cooperation with the stakeholders of the project: the client, the planners, the quality control teams and with the contractors and the suppliers.

The commissioning process is a significant part of quality assurance in any project
Commissioning of facilities is a relatively new area in the world of construction. It developed as a methodological area in Canada and the US in the 1980s. Today, it is a well-developed area outside Israel, while in Israel it has been carried out on a limited number of critical facilities.

Commissioning processes are common practice in Israel too, in the pharmaceutical industry, in clean rooms and chemical plants.

DCX’s mission is to establish the commissioning methodology in the Israeli building market and mainly in data centers and command and control facilities, by using international standards and best practices.

The methodology of the commissioning process

The commissioning process starts at the initiation phase, prior to the planning process, and continues along planning, tender and construction, ending after the delivery of the project and the completion of the warranty period.

Prior to Planning

The commissioning needs are defined and the specifications are analyzed by the commissioning authority. The plan is regarded as a living document which is updated all along the lifespan of the project.

Planning

Planning is reviewed compared to the owner project requirements, the availability needs and the ability to test at the end of construction. The tender documents include commissioning specifications which define the contractor’s commitments in this area.

Construction

During the initial phases the commissioning authority advises the contractor as to the aspects related to commissioning: the timetable, the submittal of equipment and the testing plans, and then, along with the commissioning team, carries out the commissioning tests and demonstrations. It is customary, for critical facilities, to divide the commissioning to several phases

1. Level I – Factory acceptance Tests (FAT): in this phase acceptance tests are carried out, components are tested at the factory and a report is submitted. Some of the tests at the production plant are carried out in the presence of representatives of the client (FWT – Factory Witness Tests).
2. Level II – Quality Assurance: on-site tests by the commissioning authority and assuring that the contractors are carrying out the work with constant quality control performed according to its own quality procedures 
 3. Level III – Preliminary Operation Tests: carried out by the manufacturer of the equipment or by the local representative or by the contractor. The tests make sure that each and every piece of equipment functions as required according to its specifications as approved upon the submission of the equipment and according to the manufacturer’s start up procedures.
 4. Level IV – Functional Tests: in this phase each system is tested separately. Their functioning is tested in the routine scenarios as well as in malfunction according to the various operation scenarios, as these are expressed both in the control system and in manual operation mode. The systems are tested in varying workloads using load banks simulating the operation of the facility in the different scenarios.
 5. Level V – Integrative Systems’ Test (IST): in this phase the facility is tested as a whole, verifying the mutual operation of the systems in consort, in varying workloads and in different scenarios – routine, malfunction and emergency.

Delivery and Handover

The training processes are reviewed along with a review of the As-built documentation presented by the contractor.

End of Project

The commissioning authority accompanies the year-long warranty period, occasionally carrying out complementary seasonal tests in order to test operation in various weather conditions which differ from the conditions in which the tests were carried out in Phase IV and Phase V, and finally presents a final commissioning report, summarizing the process from beginning to end.

 

Commissioning Plan

The commissioning process, as expressed in the plan, is carried out based on well-established work methods. There are several sources for these methods, including international standard upon which the commissioning is based:

  • BCxA – Building Commissioning Association – Building Commissioning Best Practices
  • ASHRAE/IES Standard 202, Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems

Commissioned Systems
As part of the commissioning process, the following systems are tested both separately and as an integrated whole:

  • The electrical systems
  • The air-conditioning systems
  • The plumbing systems
  • The fuel systems
  • The BMS - building automation systems and EPMS electrical power management system
  • ELV (Extra Low Voltage) systems connected to the electro-mechanical systems.

In addition, the structure and other building related systems (envelope) can be commissioned as far as required by the client in order to obtain LEED certificates etc.

Additional observations

The commissioning process reduces the TCO – Total Cost of Ownership of the structure’s lifespan. The process allows the gap analysis between the planning and the client’s needs and to close them while they are still “on the drawing board”. This saves the need for additional payments to the contractor and uninstalling of equipment which must then be re-installed. The savings achieved by commissioning is proven in research papers published worldwide.

Shortening the infant mortality phase in which the facility and its systems experience problems and failures which appear at the beginning of its lifespan – comprehensive testing (not selective) of the facility in all its routine operational configurations, as well as in malfunctions and emergency scenarios

Tests under varying loads – in order to ensure that the facility and its systems respond and are calibrated properly and in a stable manner both in low workloads which are expected upon initial operation and in the full workloads expected to exist in the future. The tests are carried out using IT load simulators and load banks at par with the critical environment and its specific features. Moreover, tests done under varying workloads allow for the simulation of extreme situations even such that are beyond the envelope of performance and to test how the facility will respond to these scenarios.

Representing the client’s requirements – the commissioning authority is the exclusive representative of the client and reviews his requirements as they are expressed mainly in the OPR (Owner Project Requirements) document as well as in the specifications. All this is done vis-à-vis the planning and execution documents.

מאמרים ומצגות

Department Director – Shimon Katz

Joint CEO, manager of the commissioning department in DCX

30 years’ experience in managing mega-projects combining planning, construction and operation of critical facilities and computer sites at the IDF and institutional organizations.

Experience in commissioning critical facilities and data centers. Managed the first project which included both commissioning and certification by the Uptime Institute for a data center in Israel.

Worked as chief engineer for special projects at Electra M&E Managed the Rotem project which consisted of building a TIER III data center for Bank Hapoalim

Served in the Intelligence Corps for 25 years in senior positions in the areas of infrastructure and technology
Holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Civil Engineering

Certificates:
QCxP – Qualified Commissioning Process Provider
by University of Wisconsin – Madison
ATD (Accredited Tier Designer) by the Uptime Institute
PMP (Project Management Professional) by the Project Management Institut

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