Challenge

With more than 90,000 customers, it’s critical that Gainesville Regional Utilities remains up and running. But the utility has thousands of pieces of equipment, plus special environments including the power plant control rooms and electrical substations. The small on-site HVAC team spent much of their day handling service calls – a reactive reality that rarely left time to focus on other priorities.

Results

• The number of reactive work orders dropped 70% in less than a year, significantly reducing downtime.

• The number of proactive work orders increased from two during the first six months of the contract to 10 during the second six months, indicating the O&M team is staying on top of things and catching problems.

• The Johnson Controls team has conducted up to 500 preventive maintenance activities each month, with 100% completed on time.

Solution

GRU contracted with Johnson Controls to provide a full-time, on-site operations and maintenance team of dedicated building equipment and systems experts to oversee the utility’s HVAC assets. The O&M team directly manages preventative maintenance, monitoring equipment and responding to service requests on more than 900 pieces of equipment across 40 different sites.

Now, instead of the GRU team having to stop what they’re doing, investigate service issues, call in an HVAC contractor and follow up on resolution, the Johnson Controls just takes care of it. And in the process, they’re uncovering more and more ways to maintain the equipment proactively.