Services
Our Services
MCL can offer the following services.
If you cannot see what you are particularly looking for please call to discuss.
Commissioning Management
Review the design documentation and comment on commissionability, operability and maintainabilty of the building services. Provide a report and tracking document to monitor the status of the recommendations.
Produce a commissioning programme for the building services that indetifies the commissioning tasks and their durations. The tasks are linked together in a logical sequence to identify the path of least resistance through the project. Coordinate the commissioning activites with the construction milestones to improve the project work flow. Provide regular updates of the programme to identify slippage and improvements.
Produce a commissioing plan with the assistance of the main contractor and specialist sub contractors to describe how the commissioning work will be undertaken. This will include pre-requisites, interfaces, required information, standards applied, commissioning procedure and test sheets to be used.
A comprehensive data base of the equipment to be commissioned will be produced. This will be used to track the various commissioning activities for each item or system, such as installation complete, pre-commissioning, commissioning, test documentation and acceptance status. The tracking document is a simple but powerful tool to easily identify the status of the commissioning activities. Regular updates will be provided as part of the commissioning report.
Attending site during the services installation period to check for commissionability, e.g. valves installed in the correct locations. We will also comment on access for operations and maintenance. Note that this review does not replace the construction monitoring service required by the design team.
Attending site during the services installation period to check for commissionability, e.g. valves installed in the correct locations. We will also comment on access for operations and maintenance. Our observations will be recorded on the tracking documents. Note that this review does not replace the construction monitoring service required by the design team.
When a specialist contractor has completed a pre-commissioning or commissioning activity the associated test documentation will be submitted for review. The commissioning manager shall check the documents for completeness and correctness (it is surprising how often incorrect data is used) and, if satisfied, arrange a witness demonstration.
Typically the commissioning manager shall witness a sample of the offered system to determine if the commissioning has been performed correctly. If the results from the sample match the recorded values then the witness is generally considered to be successful. If the outcome of the initial witness is not satisfactory then the sample size should be increased. Should the demonstration continue to prove unsuccessful then it shall be marked as a failure. The contractor shall need to re-commission and re-apply for a witness.
Sample sizes tend to be in the rsgion 10-20% of the total system (e.g. if 200 valves are measured then a witness would typically be around 20-30). This is not a fixed value and the most important outcome is that the commissioning manager has confidence the system has been correctly commissioned and the recorded results reflect the current status. For some systems, such as life safety systems, we prefer to perform a 100% witness.
This is a process that is seldom performed correctly and we consider it unforgiveable. MCL can help manage the client training process so the operations team understand the building prior to handover. We also push for draft O&M manuals to be made available as soon as possible to assist in this learning process.
As a commissioning manager we can provide a number of additional services which are often requested:
Fine tuning input
O&M Manual review for commissioning items
Defect Liability Period final inspection
Producing owner’s project requirements (OPR) and building user guides
Landlord / Tenant liaison for commissioning
Independent Commissioning Agent (ICA)
An ICA is a service that is requested when a buildng is following the GreenStar rating system as defined by the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC). Within the submissions template for GreenStar section 2 provides areas where up to 4 points can be earned that a commissioning manager can assist with:
Item 2.2 Services and Maintainability Review
Item 2.3 Building Commissioning
Item 2.4 Building Systems Tuning
Item 2.5 Independent Commissioning Agent (ICA)
Mark Crawford has provided ICA services on many GreenStar rated buildings over the last 12 years in New Zealand. This includes the first GreenStar 5-star building – The Meridian Building in Wellington.
Note that one of the requirements for an ICA is to follow the guidelines set out in CIBSE Commissioning Code M (Commissioning Management). Code M states that commissioning managers must be grade 6 members of the Commissioning Specialist Association (CSA). Mark Crawford is a grade 6 member and fellow of the CSA, one of only three believed to be in NZ.
LEED Commissioning Agent (CxA)
An alternate rating scheme for sustainable buildings is the Leaders in Energy Efficient Design (LEED). This system originate from the USA. It is similar to GreenStar in that credits are awarded when a building meets certain criteria. Commissioning management services can be sought on the project to obtain credits.
Mark Crawford has provided the LEED Commissioning Agent’s role on projects in New Zealand and SE Asia.
Mission Critical Systems
Mark is an electrical engineer by qualification. He has particular skills in mission critical system design, such as those needed for data centres and high-uptime facilities.
He has a great depth of experience in generator, UPS and large switchboard design. He understands the varying requirements of the tier systems used to categorise mission critical facilities and can design to meet these.
Mark has been involved with many mission critical facilities in NZ and overseas, including: ANZ Data Centres, Datacom Data Centres, Spark Data Centres and Sky TV.
Commissioning is an important task on all projects, but on mission critical facilities it is paramount. Each system and sub-system needs to be proved to be 100% operational. All failure scenarios need to be identified and tested. The facility needs to be fully integrated and proven. This takes time and expertise.
Mark Crawford has over 20 years of experience in commissioning high end data centres and mission critical facilities.
When an upgrade of critical equipment is required it is not just a matter of turning it off and replacing. A detailed procedure needs to be developed to migrate from the existing to the new installation.
MCL has experience in developing detailed migration documents for such occasions. Our approach is to include key stake holders in the process, produce easy- to follow documents and to insist on performing a dry run of all planned activities. This has proved to be a successful formula.