Improving airport energy efficiency through Continuous Commissioning at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport

Abstract

Large commercial airports consist of many complex systems that require a significant amount of energy to operate. The energy cost is often one of the largest categories of controllable airport operating expense. In the current economic environment for the airline industry, it is increasingly important for airport facility managers to reduce operating expenses for their airline and other tenants. This paper introduces the Continuous Commissioning® (CC®) process and its application at the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. Since 2004, several facilities at DFW International Airport have gone through the CC process with excellent results in terms of comfort improvement, energy and cost savings, and carbon emissions reduction. This paper describes the key steps of the CC process and presents the results at DFW International Airport.