Session 1: Opening Plenary Session

California is leading the nation in the number and size of commissioning initiatives currently under way. The commissioning news in the state includes Executive Orders from the Governor, new code requirements, and major new programs for schools and broad new utility programs. This breakfast session will kick off the conference with the official welcome and addresses by California policy leaders on what is happening in California and why it is all happening now.

• Tudi Haasl – PECI, and
  Phil Welker – PECI
• Duane Larson – Pacific Gas & Electric

Session 2: Owner Panel

What are the advantages and challenges of commissioning? What training and resources does it require? In this panel discussion, building owners discuss their approach and how they got started. Topics include how to procure a commissioning provider, what to look for in a commissioning plan and a comprehensive review of the important components in each phase of a project.

• Randy Gains – Marriott Corporation
• Christopher Atkins – University of Utah

Session 3: Building Envelope

Building enclosure construction is a complicated process with a large potential for error.  This session will discuss how to prevent errors by establishing a quality control process and testing to assure that owner’s requirements are met by all trades involved. Also a review of ASHRAE’s new Guideline 3 will be presented.  The session is suitable for designers, general contractors, building owners, Commissioning providers and enclosure-related subcontractors.

• Michael MeLampy and Kevin Knight – KTA Tator Building Services Group (930KB)(2.3MB)
• Joe Deringer – Deringer Group

Session 4: LEED® Opportunities and Challenges for the Commissioning Industry

As LEED certification is becoming more commonly pursued by building owners, it has created an increased awareness as well as a demand for commissioning services. The speakers in this session will discuss the potential issues that arise with LEED certification and the pros and cons of a commissioning provider acting as the LEED consultant.  The presentations, gleaned from the speakers’ field experience with LEED projects, will be aimed at both building owners and commissioning providers.

• Janice Peterson – Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
• Michael Mantai – System WorCx

Session 5: Monitoring Based Commissioning

This session will discuss the development of in-house technical capability in the California university system using case studies from Monitoring Based Commissioning (MBCx), the comprehensive program that is being implemented in all three investor-owned California utilities.

• Karl Brown – California Institute for Energy and Environment
• Len Pettis – California State University
• Sukhjeet Sandhu – University of California, San Francisco(528KB)

Luncheon Keynote Speaker

Craig D. Sheehy, CPM(593KB)
Director of Property Management
Thomas Properties Group, LLC

Mr. Sheehy is currently responsible for the daily operations of a 950,000 square foot building in Sacramento. Craig has been traveling North America promoting his environmental project, Greening Your Building Towards Your Bottom Line. His building (Joe Serna, Jr. – Cal/EPA Headquarters building) was recently recognized as one of the most energy efficient high-rises in the U.S. through Energy Star and was awarded the Platinum Certification through the United States Green Building Councils LEED-EB program, making it the only high rise to receive this certification to date. The building was also the 2004 winner of BOMA Internationals TOBY Earth Award.

Mr. Sheehy has become a sought-after speaker in the Real Estate Industry, averaging approximately 35 engagements per year discussing many low cost/no cost operational efficiencies that can be incorporated into commercial buildings. Real-life, state-of-the-art green building practices not only improves our impact on the environment, but also improves our net operating income. All janitorial, landscape, maintenance, tenant improvements, and equipment replacements can be carried out incorporating practices and materials that improve air quality, reduce energy usage and maximize resource reutilization, reduction and recycling. In his lively session, your learn about some of the pioneering programs that have helped protect the environment, save operating expenses and turned a 950,000 square foot high rise into the greenest high-rise in North America.

Mr. Sheehy is the current President of BOMA Internationals Pacific Southwest Region, past President of BOMA Sacramento, a Board Member of BOMA-Cal, Vice- Chair of BOMA Internationals Energy & Environmental Committee, the Vice-Chair of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Real Estate Industry Leadership Council and a member of the United States Green Building Council.

Mr. Sheehy graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelors Degree in Public Administration.

Session 6: Case Studies for the Building Owner

The two case studies presented in this session will give a business perspective on commissioning. The first speaker will revisit the commissioning of the Pentagon Building six years after its completion. The insider look at the Department of Defense facility will present findings and lessons learned from the project. The second speaker will discuss the results of a commissioning project on a 420,000 square foot laboratory building, focusing on the key elements of construction completion and describing the actual construction and occupancy processes in buildings.

• Rebecca Ellis – Sebesta Blomberg & Associates
• Michael P. Della Barba – Environmental Health & Engineering

Session 7: Commissioning Lighting Systems for Optimal Performance and Energy Efficiency

Photocontrols have been described as the next frontier in energy savings for light controls. This session will explore the savings potential of both sidelighting and toplighting photocontrol systems, taking data from large-scale field research studies of buildings with differing design and commissioning characteristics.

• Owen Howlett – Heschong Mahone Group
• Abhijeet Pande – Heschong Mahone Group

Session 8: What’s Up with LEED-EB® and LEED-NC®?

This session will offer a rundown of the recently-updated LEED Rating System for new and existing buildings. The speakers will offer tips to owners and managers on how to make the most of a building’s performance while attaining the national standards of sustainability and efficiency.

• Barry Giles – California State University
• Erik Ring – CTG Energetics, Inc.

Session 9: Commissioning Programs Across California

The speakers in this session will discuss the unique aspects of the California commissioning market, using lessons learned from completed programs in LA County, San Diego, and statewide through the Building Tune Up Program. 

• Tony Pierce – Southern California Edison, and
  Narenda Amarnani – County of Los Angeles
• Derrick Rebello – Quantum Energy Services and Technologies, Inc.
• Emily Moore – PECI

Session 10: Legal & Liability Panel

This panel will be moderated by an attorney specializing in construction law and will feature a discussion on the liability issues faced by commissioning providers during the design, construction, and testing of a project. It will also cover strategies for insulating against such liabilities and insurance issues/risk mitigation.

• Leah A. Rochwarg – Seyfarth Shaw LLP
• Richard Allen – Dufresne-Henry
• John Penney – John F. Penney Consulting Services, PC
• John Andary – Stantec Consulting, Inc.

Session 11: The Amazing Findings Challenge

There’s no telling what one will find in the field. In this interactive session, six commissioning providers will present their most amazing findings, and compete for the audience award.  Submit your Amazing Finding by March 15th to be included in this session.  Send your one paragraph description to lfischer@peci.org

• Brian Garceau – San Diego Marina Marriott and
  David Sellers – PECI
• Mike Rosenberg – Affiliated Construction Services, Inc.
• Philip Saoud – Peter Basso Associates
• Kent Browning – KWR Engineering Services, LLC
• Bryan Welsh – Welsh Commissioning Group

Session 12: Case Studies – LEED-NC®

The first case study in this session will be a review of six private and public universities that have adopted LEED-NC certification for all new campus buildings.  The speaker will dicuss the unique challenges and lessons learned about commissioning campus housing projects pursuing LEED certification. 

• Erik Ring – CTG Energetics, Inc.
• George Denise – Cushman & Wakefield

Session 13: New Commissioning Programs in California

New Utility and State retrocommissioning programs will be launched this year in California. At this session the latest details will be presented by utility representatives.

• Randall Higa – Southern California Gas/San Diego Gas & Electric
• Michael Lo – Southern California Edison
• Jim Parks – Sacramento Municipal Utility District
• Peter Turnbull – Pacific Gas & Electric

Breakfast Session 1: An International Perspective on Commissioning

The session will discuss the international collaboration in the commissioning industry in both research and business aspects, with a focus on the Building Services Commissioning Association of Japan and an update on the International Energy Agency’s Annex 47.

• Nobuo Nakahara – Nagoya University
• Natascha Castro – National Institute of Standards and Technology

Breakfast Session 2: Automated Demand Response

This session will present results from buildings tested under California’s new Demand Response program. The buildings in the study were monitored using fully automated internet communications as they used demand reduction and generation to achieve power savings and reduce blackouts and brownouts.

• Mary Ann Piette – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories

Breakfast Session 3: Top Issues in Design Review: An Interactive Discussion

What issues do you see over and over when you perform design reviews? We are currently developing a design review checklist tool for PG&E, to integrate with the Cx Assistant suite of tools. Come to this session to hear about this project, learn the top design review issues found from commissioning provider interviews, and share design review issues of your own.

• Karl Stum – Summit Building Engineering
• Hannah Friedman – PECI
• Kenneth L. Gillespie, Jr. – Pacific Gas & Electric Company
• Kristen Heinemeier – PECI

Session 14: What Owners Need to Know for Scoping and Hiring

This session will be aimed at building owners to let them know what to expect from and how to manage commissioning projects. The speakers will use actual experiences to discuss the expectations and results of the commissioning process, including the difference between “quality control” services provided by the construction delivery team and “quality assurance” services which can only be provided by an independent third party commissioning agent.

• Wayne Dunn – E. W. Dunn Developments, Inc.
• Anand K. Seth – Sebesta Blomberg & Associates

Session 15: DDC Systems as Commissioining Tools - Part 1

This presentation will cover the challenges and successes of using DDC Systems in the retrocommissioning process. The speakers will draw from their experience in the field to explore the importance of up-to-date performance monitoring systems for commercial buildings, including data acquisition and visualization, archiving, and reporting.

• Reinhard Seidl – Taylor Engineering(1.32MB)
• Roy Feinzig – EYP Mission Critical Facilities

Session 16: Incorporating M&V in Commissioning

Measurement and verification (M&V) can address the issues often raised about the achieved savings and persistence of commissioning projects. This session will discuss the practical M&V methods for improving operations and maintainence and addressing these concerns.

• David Jump – Quantum Energy Services and Technologies, Inc.
• Kristin Heineimeier – PECI

Session 17: Ongoing Commissioning

The first speaker in this session will discuss the use of the operations and maintenance contractor to sustain ongoing commissioning in a building, using example projects that show effective implementation of commissioning services by an O&M contractor versus an outside consultant. The second speaker will discuss the state-of-the-art fault detection and diagnostic products that are now available for ongoing commissioning including web-based and embedded tools.

• Jonathan Soper – Enovity
• Mark Cherniack – New Buildings Institute

Session 18: Commissioning of Health Care Facilities

Hospitals are mission-critical facilities that require optimal building performance at all times, and commissioning is a way to achieve this performance. The speakers will discuss how commissioning during the construction process helped hospitals meet code requirements and performance goals.

• Christopher Brennan – Hospital Facilities Development, SUNY Stony Brook
• Todd McGuire – Engineering Economics, Inc.

Session 19: DDC Systems as Commissioning Tools – Part 2

A well-installed system will help the benefits of the initial commissioning effort persist through the life of the building. This first speaker in this session will explore the architectural, performance, and design of DDC systems, covering areas that should be targeted by the commissioning provider during the design phase and beyond. The second speaker will describe a guide for specifying performance monitoring intended to assist commercial and institutional building owners meet their performance goals.

• J. Jay Santos – Facility Dynamics Engineering
• Kenneth L. Gillespie, Jr. – Pacific Gas & Electric Company

Session 20: LEED® Commissioning of Innovative Systems

The commissioning industry has transformed the ways that buildings are constructed and operated. Often, these changes bring about issues with designers, vendors, and building operators that are unfamiliar with the latest energy-efficient equipment and designs. This session will discuss these issues and how to avoid them, using examples from buildings with deficiencies that have been identified and corrected. 

• Brad Jones – Sebesta Blomberg & Associates, Inc.
• Adam Wheeler – Sherrill Engineering, Inc.

Session 21: Tuning Up the Retrocommissioning Process – An Interactive Session

The session will begin with a presentation of case studies of retrocommissioning projects. The speaker will offer key insights and lessons learned from the completed projects, and will discuss benchmarking, M&V, performance validation and other techniques to optimize the retrocommissioning scope of work. Then, the floor will be opened for discussion in an interactive session on retrocommissioning.

• Tom Poeling – EMC Engineers, Inc.(1.55MB)
• Tudi Haasl – PECI

Session 22: Data Loggers

This technical session will include a hands-on demonstration of the value of data loggers and an in-field monitoring plan for power usage in ongoing commissioning projects. It will use real data sets as examples while describing methods for logging and merging data sets. It will also explore some creative methods for applying data loggers to break down a building’s energy consumption, including examples from different projects. After seeing an analysis of building performance with specific procedures and techniques, session attendees will come away with skills to aid in the efficient and effective use of data loggers.

• Bryan W. Welsh – Welsh Commissioning Group, Inc. (532KB) (1.35MB)
• Ryan Stroupe – Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pacific Energy Center(920KB)

Session 23: Sensor Calibration with Demand Control Ventilation

This advanced technical session will explore demand control ventilation strategies. The first speaker will discuss the topic of sensor accuracy and calibration, which is often listed in commissioning specifications but is not well understood. The second speaker will discuss the proper application of demand controlled ventilation as a control strategy and its potential in commissioning and retrofit projects.

• Karl Stum – Summit Building Engineering, LLC
• Eric Jeaneatte – Architectural Energy Corporation

Session 24: Underfloor Air Distribution

This advanced technical session will explore the increasingly common technique of underfloor air distribution (UFAD) in commercial construction. The speaker will discuss the design, construction and testing of these systems as well as the problems associated with their implementation using lessons learned from UFAD commissioning projects.

• Scott Nelson – CH2M HILL(1.64MB)
• Larry Luskay – PECI(1.50MB)

Business Partners' Reception

The NCBC Business Partners’ Show culminates with appetizers and drinks at the Business Partners’ Reception.

Session 25: Case Study and Site Tour of Marriott Building

The Marriott has been involved in a number of successful retrocommissioning projects in its locations nationwide. This session will begin with a presentation about one of these locations, the Moscone Center Marriott located in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Following the presentation, facilities staff will lead a tour of the 39- floor 1,421 room luxury hotel focusing on the retrocommissioning efforts in the building’s central plant and thermal storage system.(3.99MB)

• EJ Hilts – The Marriott
• Ty Sanders – The Marriott

Session 26: Case Study and Site Tour of SF Federal Building

Participants in this session will have the exciting opportunity to tour the San Francisco Federal Building, the landmark site that will serve as a portal to the city’s Civic Center district, while it is still under construction. The 18-story building, owned by the U.S. General Services Administration, is estimated to use half the amount of energy as a conventional building of the same size due to its innovative natural air ventilation and lighting systems. Participants will get an overview of the design features of the building in the classroom before heading over to the site to get a behind-the-scenes look at the systems. Be sure to dress appropriately for the site tour. Hard hats and safety glasses will be provided.(587KB)

• Mark Levi – U.S. General Services Administration
• Tim Christ – Morphosis
• Jonathan Soper – Enovity

Session 27: Case Study and Site Tour of the Pacific Energy Center

This case study will present the findings from an exciting and unusual retrocommissioning workshop that began in May 2005 at the Pacific Energy Center (PEC) in San Francisco. As a way to train building professionals interested in developing their commissioning skills, the PEC gave attendees real exposure to the planning, decision-making and diagnostic aspects of commissioning by retrocommissioning the PEC itself. The facility had started the retrocommissioning process in 2002 but changes were never implemented, and recent billing data suggests it is again drifting into a sub-optimal condition. The ongoing class was composed of a group with a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise: architects, designers, controls experts, mechanical engineers and project managers. The groups rotated through the various tasks exposing everyone to different systems, measurement equipment and real data sets. In this session, class attendees will present the findings from the workshop activities and share their learning experiences from this unique training. Attendees will travel to the PEC for the presentation and tour.(1.52MB)

• Ryan Stroupe – Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Pacific Energy Center (1.25MB)