Carole Metour, a veteran in hospital operations, management, and maintenance, founded PM Services Company, doing business as Preventive Maintenance Services Company or PMSC, back in 1986. For over three decades, this woman-owned small business (WOSB) has been providing full facility support, quality operations and maintenance support services for government and commercial properties in the U.S. While offering these services to clients, Carole noticed how evolving technological advancements changed the nature and manner in which onsite personnel operated and maintained facilities. This Smart Buildings revolution led to cross communications, data integration, and intelligent decision making for optimizing facility performance. To take the necessary actions to reap the benefits of these new building systems, facility managers required a strategy to integrate, collect and consolidate data. Managers could then analyze this data for effective decision making. Simply stated, management required personnel with additional technical capabilities to commission and control these complex systems. She also noticed a lack of focus on this component on the ground, at the site – the very place needed the most. This observation led Carole to create PMSC’s Building Professional Services (BPS) division. She staffed this BPS division with highly experienced, cross-trained technicians and engineers to provide needed assistance to PMSC’s Operations and Maintenance (O&M) clients. These highly qualified BPS professionals would integrate building systems properly and calibrate to function as designed, at their optimal level. This focus reduces both facility operational costs and energy consumption.
“Carole created this division to augment operations in maintenance services,” states Leslie Powers, President at PMSC. “Our BPS division delivers high quality, project-oriented services with an emphasis on energy, new technologies, and building automation controls,” she adds.
BPS Engineers, with their multi-disciplinary knowledge and experience, verify facility systems meet client requirements. They provide complete energy services, including energy/water consumption audits, analysis, modelling, and development of energy conservation measures. In hindsight, the BPS Engineers develop integration methodology for cross-functionality between automation systems, buildings, and campuses achieving the maximum level of system interoperability. They use their extensive experience with various building automation systems, proprietary protocols, open protocols, and integration platforms to achieve the maximum level of system interoperability. As a result, they can seamlessly commission a facility’s solution by evaluating unique factors while working with the client and facility O&M team.
“We keep people comfortable and productive in their buildings with minimal human effort. These systems need to be connected so they complement each other.
Consequently, there's a huge amount of data analysis and technical capabilities we bring to a contract,” affirms Derek Scott, Division Manager at BPS. Derek also clarifies the overall purpose of BPS is to enable the O&M contract team to maintain energy usage below prescribed values.
Employees on an O&M contract are typically plumbers, electricians, painters, HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning) and maintenance mechanics—all of whom have been trained with categorical skillsets. As a result, their level of evaluating any critical issue is restricted to their specific area of expertise. In the case of BPS, when the engineers arrive, they supplement the O&M team with an all-encompassing, in-depth, system-wide point of view of systems, building automation protocols, and the other technical know-how to foresee what may happen with a piece of equipment over a period of time. Should an issue with HVAC, complex programming or system connectivity come into play, PMSC BPS engineers can resolve narrow, restrictive knowledge and experience issues and produce long-term, solid, proven results.
PMSC created the BPS division to strengthen the O&M contracts and provide improved facility management operations through developing, monitoring, and implementing specific programs and procedures. BPS augments the success of O&M contracts by supplementing the options available to the O&M team to resolve problems. BPS provides all vendors and technicians appropriate resources for calibration of advanced meters and systems integrated into the pre-installed building automation system. Afterward, the onsite BAS specialist can then perform system configuration, graphics modifications, and refined Sequence of Operations (SOO) reprogramming.
The PMSC BPS division has achieved significant success across multiple sectors. For example, the Denver Federal Center (DFC), located in Lakewood, Colorado, houses 28 government agencies in 44 buildings with approximately 4 million square feet of facilities. The government awarded a project to the incumbent controls vendor to upgrade the building automation systems on the campus. Subsequently, the government contracted PMSC BPS division to retro-commission all 23 Siemens controlled buildings (3.3 million square feet). Through this project, the BPS team evaluated all BAS controls, mechanical equipment, and comfort issues within the facilities. The government received a final building report to document the retro-commissioning results and a list of corrective measures to upgrade and further improve the facility's integration. BPS subsequently implemented these corrective measures
In another example, the PMSC BPS team partnered with the USDA in an energy infrastructure project. BPS partnered with the USDA to improve the USDA Data Center Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to comply with Federal Executive Order 13514 for energy efficient management of federal data centers. PMSC installed a Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) tool to monitor energy efficiency and to identify potential infrastructure trouble spots at the cabinet-level in USDA’s 14,300 square foot Primary Computing Facility. The DCIM automation software allows facility O&M managers to identify inefficiencies and make corrections to mechanical systems, hot or cold containment air distribution, and data center equipment. Through continuous monitoring and commissioning, PMSCBPS has supported the USDA, achieving a 22 percent electrical load reduction and a savings of $80,000 during the financial year alone.
PMSC cultivates partnerships with its clients. With an understanding and appreciation of their clients’ mission and goals, the company designs, implements, and sustains a reliable, competitive, and innovative methodology to manage assets. “We are tenacious and innovative. We partner with multiple resources external to our company to uncover and customize specific solutions for our clients,” concludes Leslie.
