Controls News 13
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Reference projects:
Changes at the European research centre CERN
«
Peace of Mind
»
at CERN in Geneva
With the «Peace of Mind» concept, CERN is focussing on total independence,
with the aim of further developing the automation of building infrastructures to its
own advantage
Author: André Gross
The World Wide Web arose from the need for data
exchange among physicists. In the context of infra-
structure management, the need for openness and
the use of common standards by the majority has led
to a decision in favour of automation systems from
Saia-Burgess Controls. One of the main priorities of
the Peace of Mind concept that Saia-Burgess Con-
trols is introducing for the automation of the organi-
sation’s buildings and infrastruc-tures is the further
development of applications by several independ-
ent system integrators throughout their entire life
cycle. The hope for this project is that it should spell
the end of any dependence on a single, irreplace-
able provider (which has often been observed) and
provide the freedom to develop automation systems
further without any restriction in terms of require-
ments. The owner wins on all levels: flexibility, speed,
selection of providers and, finally, on a cost level.
Long-term progress towards independence and flex-
ibility naturally requires the selection of equipment
that guarantees flexible, open and sustainable auto-
mation. The Saia® PCD automation systems fulfil all
these conditions.
First steps with CERN
The management alone of more than 400 properties
with their associated infrastructures is a challenge. If
you add to this the technical developments, budget-
ary constraints, economical use of energy and opti-
mum utilisation with heterogeneous systems, the
problem that would have had to be solved by award-
ing everything to an external specialist becomes
hard to manage. That is why one of the priorities for
CERN was to regain total control, without having to
do away with the existing system. In its POM pres-
entations, Saia-Burgess Controls
offered CERN solutions for all the
demands that CERN had made
for the desired internal takeover.
Three projects to test the Saia
equipment and partner services
were set in motion immediately.
The first projects
Elitec SA, a certified Saia® PCD
system integrator, quickly dem-
onstrated its expertise in the first
heating projects for buildings
864, 42, 14
and 35, and also in two
heating installations for the large
district heating production cen-
tres on CERN premises, the head-
quarters of Meyrin (3 × 15 MW)
and Prévessin (3 × 7 MW). These
large district heating production
centres were tested by inspection
bodies such as ASIT in Switzerland
and DEKRA in France with regard
to the built-in checks of the heat-
ing installations.
Reception building for visitors. Management of lighting with Saia®PCD
With 430 industrial build-
ings, CERN has had to dou-
ble its reception capacity
since the inauguration of
the LHC. Today’s infrastruc-
ture has to ensure that
more than 10 000 scientists
can conduct their research
without any problems.
Elitec SA was primarily set up in 1994 for
the manufacture of electrical control panels
and in the years since has developed,
together with its 17 employees, into one
of the key players in the field of building
automation and technology in the western,
French-speaking part of Switzerland. Elitec
AG is one of our successful certified system
integrators and was able to prove its exper-
tise at CERN.
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