How a global IT consulting firm unlocked the full potential of its existing plantroom through better visibility and data-driven insights

Some of the biggest energy savings don't come from replacing equipment. They come from unlocking the full potential of the assets you already have.

That's what a global technology and consulting firm in India discovered after engaging Johnson Controls to modernise its plantroom controls and connecting operations to digital analytics.

Key results:

• More than $100,000 in potential annual energy savings identified
• 8% improvement in plant electrical efficiency
• Less than 1.5 years projected payback
• Uninterrupted operations throughout the pilot

Serving four buildings totalling 1.2 million sq ft, the central cooling plant plays a vital role in supporting day-to-day operations. The system comprises nine chillers (five water-cooled and four air-cooled), providing 3,600 tons of peak cooling capacity and handling an annual cooling load of 16.7 million ton-hours. With a baseline plant efficiency of 0.754 kW/ton, even incremental improvements had the potential to deliver significant energy and cost savings at scale.

Like many organisations, the consulting firm faced a familiar challenge: limited visibility on the plantroom operations. Manual monitoring made it difficult to identify inefficiencies, while the absence of historical energy data limited opportunities to uncover optimisation opportunities, and make informed operational decisions.

Johnson Controls addressed these challenges by modernising the consulting firm’s plantroom control system and connected operations to OpenBlue. New Metasys field controllers and Tridium Niagara JACE controllers created a unified view of plantroom performance, while OpenBlue-driven insights helped identify equipment-level issues and prioritised opportunities for improvement. Johnson Controls worked closely with the consulting firm to tailor the solution to its operational and IT requirements.

The pilot delivered more than measurable savings. It established a reliable performance baseline for continuous optimisation, giving the consulting firm timely data-driven insights to track performance and make smarter operational decisions. Throughout the pilot, plant operations remained uninterrupted, demonstrating that meaningful efficiency gains can be achieved without compromising operational reliability.