THE SQUAIRE - THE SKYSCRABER LYING DOWN

The planning for Europe’s largest offi ce building began in 2000. The idea was to create a complete city – the so-called “New Work City” – under a single roof. The offi ce space can accommodate up to 7000 employees. In addition to the offi ces, “The Squaire” also off ers all facilities for everyday needs: a medical THE SQUAIRE ? THE SKYSCRAPER LYING DOWN center, fi tness center, child care center, shopping, cafes, a restaurant and two hotels. The transportation connections are also top-notch. One of the largest airports in Europe and the most important highways are directly at its front door; the ICE runs nearly through the cellar, and there is also a suffi cient number of parking spaces.

The automation and control of the building technology represents a challenge in this unique property. Especially with respect to room automation, the operators wanted to guarantee great fl exibility. It should be possible, for example, to reconfi gure offi ce spaces easily without additional work on the electrical installa tion or programming. Hermos AG, who was commissioned by the general contractor YIT with the implementation of the control and automation technology, developed an overall concept that includes both the central building technology, as well as room automation.

Open system architecture offers flexibility
Due to the special architecture, the automation technology is divided into six sections along the main axis; an individual server is responsible for each of these. These component servers and the superior central server are combined into a network. Therefore it is possible to separate complete building sections tenant-specifically and communication-technically from one another without losing all of the operation and monitoring. Hermos’ so-called “FIS#ApplicationServer” is running on the central server; in combination with “FIS#Graph” it enables operation, control and visualization of all the building’s systems. The “FIS#Facility” module used combines diff erent system types from diff erent manufacturers on a neutral platform with a uniform user interface.

Master-slave architecture on the controller
The switches on the various levels are connected to the component server via a LWL ring. Several system distributors are connected to the switches; a WAGO 750-841 controller is installed in each of these. “The decision in favor of WAGO was made because modules for all interfaces and protocols are easily available for the WAGO-I/O-SYSTEM,” explains Christian Kuhles. As Project manager for SPS Software at Hermos, Kuhles is responsible for the project. In addition to the controller, there are various modules in the system distributors via which the controller can activate individual components, such as lights and blinds. There is also an expansion module for the internal module bus, which expands the space available on the module bus. At a distance of 15 m, up to seven additional system distributors (so-called slaves) are connected. With a single controller, a building section with a length of more than 100 m can therefore be automated.

The system distributors are all standardized. “Thanks to this, significant advantages in the production and testing of the system distributor units have been achieved,” according to project manager Stephan Thaufelder. Via modules in the system distributors, the WAGO controller manages heating and cooling, the lighting, the windows and blinds. The building’s central systems, pumps, valves and frequency inverters must be activated for the blowers, exterior lighting, heating and cooling distribution, etc. Various subbus systems such as Modbus RTU, DALI, MP-Bus, and KNX are used here. Hermos also relies on standardization of the cabling for the system distributors: The connection of individual components to the system distributors is made using pre-assembled cables and WAGO’s WINSTA® system. “Employees only had to mount the finished and pre-tested system distributors and plug in the plug connectors of the cables, which had already been laid,” explains Stephan Thaufelder about the advantages.

Automatic software generation
For setting the controller’s software, Hermos also relied on standardization. A function list according to VDI directive 3814 with the data points serves as the basis for generating the main system’s software. “We developed a script that reads in the function list and generates the program code from that,” explains Christian Kuhles. This must then be imported into CoDeSys and compiled. Then, you load the finished program onto the WAGO controller, where it provides all functions for the operation of the individual components and their visualization. Only automatic functions such as the temperature control of the heating have to be set up. “Thanks to this type of software generation, we save approximately 80% of the time required for programming for this very large project,” continues Christian Kuhles.

The software for the controllers for room automation is also available in all building sections. The operators can easily configure the software that is running on the controller. The lighting, heating, and room shading is implemented with radio switches, which work with the EnOcean standard. EnOcean technology is particularly beneficial if changes to office spaces are made. The EnOcean devices can simply be re-attached at any point in the redesigned spaces. Then, only the assignment of the devices and the division of the rooms must be configured in the software; this can be done with a few mouse clicks.

Standardization ensures quick handling
“The size of the property presented special challenges for us,” explains Christian Kuhles about his experiences. “The installation and start-up of the building automation had to move very quickly in the individual areas.” Only with standardized hardware solutions and the automatic generation of parts of the software were the specialists from Hermos able to master these challenges. The WAGO-I/OSYSTEM is the perfect solution for incorporating all components in all systems easily.