HVR Magazine Article

In the early days of building management systems, the technology was referred to as BEMS – Building Energy Management Systems. Over the years, the focus switched to making buildings work and ensuring different services were able to communicate with each other and the ‘energy’ element faded.

Today with the increasing focus on energy efficiency and the need for buildings to meet strict performance goals set down by new legislation, this Surrey-based contractor sees a huge opportunity to ensure that controls engineers lead the drive for low carbon buildings.

“There are a lot of buildings out there, that are not ready for Energy Performance Certificates [required in buildings over 10,000m2 from this April and for all buildings by October],” says sales director Gary Franklin.

“This is a huge opportunity for companies with real controls expertise,” he adds. “Controls are the brains of a building. They gather vital energy information, which allows you to create a performance profile that is the key to setting up an energy strategy. That data is usually available if you know where to look, but too often it is simply not understood, not analysed and, therefore, wasted. “Companies like ours can change that.”

The market is clearly moving in the right direction for ACME, which was founded in 1991 by four former Staefa Controls Engineers: Kevin Germany, John Baker, Sam Saunders and Steve Morrissey; who were later joined by Gary Franklin.

Today it is nudging £5 million turnover and employs 55 staff, including 38 engineers and an excellent committed administration team. It has moved to new premises in Woking in January 2008 and opened a regional office in Bristol in 2002. The Head Office covers London and the Home counties with Bristol providing services to the South West, Wales and the Midlands.

ACME has also carried out projects throughout the UK and Europe, in all kinds of buildings and beyond, including the North Sea where John helped BP get many more years working life out of its Magnus oil rig. By replacing the old pneumatic system with modern controls, BP was able to adapt the rig accommodation block and continue with new enhanced oil production.

ACME, meaning “the highest point of achievement or excellence”, has enjoyed steady growth of 20 per cent year-on-year until 2007 when turnover suddenly leapt from £3.5m to £4.7m. Much of this was down to additional upgrade and refurbishment work from existing clients and this pattern is accelerating.

"Most of our growth is down to long-term established relationships – largely working for building users through M&E contractors," says Gary. "Many of our clients have been with us for more than 10 years."

ACME joined the HVCA at a very early stage in its development because "we wanted to prove that we were in this for the long run and had quality assurance practices behind us", explains John. And, as an organisation for controls specialists and M&E contractors, many of its customers are also members.

Commissioning was a particular strength of the company from Day One and "mucking in together" over Bank Holiday weekends because the project had run out of time – the perennial problem for commissioning engineers – was a regular occurrence. Their wives might not have been impressed, but it allowed the five to build up a high level of trust with their contractor clients and earned them a reputation for being able to get things working in time for handover “no matter what”.

Today ACME provides in-depth commissioning as part of a complete controls solution incorporating design, installation and on-going maintenance. It offers a 24-hour cover facility as well as a bureau service that monitors and adjusts clients’ plant remotely.

The company also provides consultancy services from original project concept to specification writing as well as energy surveys and implementation reports to help clients reduce their carbon footprint. The growing demand for energy efficiency is allowing them to build on that foundation with existing and potential clients.

The company also provides consultancy services from original project concept to specification writing as well as energy surveys and implementation reports to help clients reduce their carbon footprint. The growing demand for energy efficiency is allowing them to build on that foundation with existing and potential clients.

Also, every engineer in the business has completed training for membership of the Competent Person Scheme run by Building Engineering Services Competence Accreditation (BESCA). This training means engineers will be able to self-certify their work under Part L of the Building Regulations and provide building energy certificates.

BESCA trainer and energy management specialist Mike Malina, who provided the training at ACME’s premises, is hugely impressed by the company’s approach. “It is unprecedented for a contractor to put its entire engineering staff through the training,” he says. “It shows fantastic commitment and makes sound business sense.

“Companies like ACME will definitely carry the future as they are able to offer their clients an excellent level of technical expertise and energy advice,” adds Mike. “Controls are the most critical element in any energy strategy. Too often we come across buildings where the controls were either not adequate or incorrectly set in the first place, and have been tampered with or disconnected subsequently.

“Controls engineers can gather the necessary performance data to analyse the building’s performance and then put a strategy in place to get the building back on track.”