Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC) Commissioning

Verifying the Design Works as Intended

By providing Fundamental and Enhanced Commissioning services as part of the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification program, EEA helped the Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC) achieve these goals at their 69,392 square foot office and warehouse facility in Seguin, Texas. The Owner, design team, construction team, and EEA worked together to receive a LEED for New Construction rating of Gold.

Construction is Over and Commissioning is Done, Right?

A few months prior to the Contractor warranty expiring, EEA went back to the site and performed additional testing. The building automation system (BAS) operates much of the programming based on sensors located in spaces, ductwork, piping and equipment. If a sensor isn’t reading correctly then the BAS may give incorrect signals to equipment. For example, during follow-up testing EEA found one of the ventilation fan temperature sensors reading 358°F which was causing the fan to run when it wasn’t necessary. By having the Contractor recalibrate or replace the sensor the fan was able to run only when needed.

Commissioned Systems

The facility has four buildings: 16,370 sq. ft. operations building, 25,388 sq. ft. office/warehouse building, 25,388 sq. ft. transportation/technical services building, and 2,246 sq. ft. truck washing facility. The scope included commissioning of newly installed systems within the building including air cooled chillers, chilled water pumps, variable air volume (VAV) air handling units, VAV terminal units with electric heat, general exhaust, direct digital type controls, electric hot water heaters, and lighting control systems throughout the building.