Using less power, Chifley Tower wins green performance award

Sydney's Chifley Tower has received a performance award for its Energy Efficiency Upgrade project at the annual Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 2015 Awards.

Property management firm JLL nominated Chifley Tower for the award. JLL’s head of the premium asset group, Mike George said JLL estimates that electricity consumption in the building has been reduced by 55% from the 2008 baseline readings preceding the project’s conception.  

The target of the Energy Efficiency Upgrade project was a 4.5 star NABERS Energy Rating, which it earned in January 2015.

The project of works for the entire project included:

• Installation of a new central chilled water plant.  The building’s cooling system was converted from a floor-by-floor, distributed condenser water cooled air conditioning system to a centralised chilled water system.  On 15 fully refurbished floors, five tenancy control zones were introduced for greater control of air conditioning supply;
• Chifley Tower’s Building Management System (BMS) was upgraded with a new control system throughout the main plant infrastructure and on floors, including new graphic interfaces for improved monitoring and reporting;
• Replacement of DC technology lift drives and control system equipment with latest technology;
• Replacement of car park and back of house light fittings to reduce energy consumption;
• Installation of C-Bus controlled lighting systems throughout the building to optimise lighting operation times and installation of LED sensor controlled light fittings in some areas to reduce the lighting load significantly;
• Selection of a new standard tenancy light fitting and lighting layout design to reduce energy consumption and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) load; and
• Review and optimisation of Waste Management systems in place.