Opened in 1993 for upscale business and vacation guests, the 208-room hotel boasts sumptuous guest rooms, fine restaurants, state-of-the-art meeting areas, indoor squash courts, a heated pool and an adjoining 18-hole golf course. The hotel is located on the island of Coloane and sits on Hac Sa Beach across the South China Sea from Hong Kong.

The objective was to exercise precise facility management to remain competitive, as well as create a superior guest environment.
The weather can fluctuate dramatically. "Here in Macau, the outside temperature can change suddenly," says Estrada. Most important, the Westin must maintain a very comfortable environment for guests. In the very popular Macau marketplace, the Westin must do everything it can to make guests happy and keep costs down.

As a result of the Westin's new energy management regime and the Schneider Electric system, the hotel saved $649,000 from 1995 - 1998. From Estrada's first day in 1998 through 2001, he estimates the hotel will have saved an additional $800,000. That's a total of $1,449,000 in six years. "In 1999, energy savings helped quite a bit," he says. "We would have had a negative year otherwise. In 1998 and 1999 all the hotels in Macau had a gross operating loss, but we managed to be on top with a gross operating profit."
Schneider Electric Infinity system has also allowed him to streamline his staff. "I have saved between two and three men because the hotel runs 24/7," he says. "With our old system, it was very hard to monitor every area. I had to have one man walk around to every location in the hotel just to check temperatures and turn equipment on and off. If I didn't have the Schneider Electric system, I would have to add one more man for each of our three shifts."
Hotel guests have benefited as well. Estrada explains that complaints in public areas such as the restaurants have dramatically decreased. 'I had to manually control a lot of mechanical equipment. With Schneider Electric, I was able to look at the result and manage the equipment remotely, setting the temperature, turning it on and off. The end result was far fewer complaints from guests and staff'.

"Every dollar that I save in energy use goes right into the Gross Operating Profit. Hotel occupancy is very dynamic. The hotel is not full every day. There are floors and wings of the building that don't have guests. If 60 percent of the hotel is vacant, I don't need to run the systems there."
-J.Estrada, Chief Engineer at the Westin

In 1995, the Westin hired Energy Resources Management (ERM) of Hong Kong to help reduce energy consumption. After an exhaustive energy audit, ERM identified opportunities for improved energy management as well as issues with the old building automation system, says Robert Allender, CEM, Managing Director at ERM. "One clear weakness was that the system installed two years earlier only sent alarms and allowed remote on-off functionality," he says. The Schneider Electric solution solved these problems, created new opportunities and enabled new management procedures.

ERM brought in Schneider Electric partner BAS Engineering Ltd. to install an Infinity building system to enable progressive energy management. According to Mr. K.F. Cheung, BMS Engineer, the original Westin building management system required continued expensive repairs.
The challenge for Cheung and his team was to implement ERM's recommendations and salvage as much of the old system architecture as possible. Subsequently, the Schneider Electric solution has been the key to remarkable energy savings and unparalleled control.

The process began in 1995 but the Westin continues forward. According to the Westin Macau Resort, their energy management program improves each year and reduces pollution, thus having a very positive impact on the natural environment.

In addition to ERM's weekly energy audit, Estrada and his staff monitor every system every day, looking for opportunities to conserve. Kilowatt hours, oil and water consumption are closely watched. In conjunction with Estrada's routines, BAS Engineering provides basic programming for chiller sequencing and generating weekly energy usage logs that are sent to ERM. According to Cheung, "The custom Schneider Electric program senses the cooling load. If the load is less than cooling capacity, it shuts down one of the chillers."
Moreover, BAS Engineering Ltd. created a host of special programs for the PAUs and AHUs, which also use Schneider Electric's Plain English® programming language. The ventilation program employs a schedule to strategically turn specific fans on and off. And, the temperature control programs compare air temperatures with set points to actuate the HVAC equipment to meet them.
Estrada outlines his day: "In the morning I have to make sure equipment is not set at a low cooling level. It's a waste of money and adds a lot of load to the chillers. I also have to make sure equipment that is not supposed to be on is off." "I usually make sure that meeting rooms and the lobby and restaurants are at the proper temperature. It's very quick for me to get on the PC and click on the Schneider Electric BMS and look at the situation. What's the temperature? What's the humidity? Without it, I would have to send men with various hand-held calibration and checkout tools to check these areas. It would take them one hour to come back and tell me that something is wrong."

The Westin Macau currently has three chillers, 25 PAUs, 16 AHUs, 15 VAVs and 330 FCUs. Cheung explains that the Schneider Electric technology was able to interface with the old system architecture without interfering with its operation. That's critical, since 50 percent of the equipment is from the old BMS. In addition to testing and replacing wiring, Cheung was able to use just three Schneider Electric Infilink 200 System Network Repeaters to ensure robust and clear signals from NetControllers. The retrofit is flawless.