Among the many technical sessions and meetings that occurred at this summer’s ASHRAE meeting was a session by a group of professionals assessing central chiller plants with a focus on establishing standards for monitoring, measuring, and benchmarking central plant performance.

One issue in this task is determining the ways chilled water plant performance can be stated. Questions such as, “Does the kW/ton include the ancillary equipment energy?” are being asked as part of the data collection process. The final results will be valuable management tools for assessing and point of referencing one segment of facility management operating costs.