Upgrading an existing and unsupported GE based Lighting control system in a 36 Floor Office Tower

A customer was faced with the challenge to replace the existing and unsupported GE Total Lighting Control (TLC) system that was originally installed 30+ years ago with its last update done in 1997.  Forty-one (41) GE lighting panels were upgraded including full replacement of all 768 GE relays (RR7/RR9 with the newer style 2-wire relays) while maintaining all of the existing electrical infrastructure (cabinets, high and low voltage wiring, conduit, existing low voltage switches) and providing direct Bacnet MSTP and IP connectivity for integration into the building's management system (BMS).  All 41GE Lighting Panels were upgraded (including replacing all of the relays) in under 4 weeks with no disruption to building or area lighting or occupants in these areas.  Upgrade cost was approximately 1/3 that of other solutions, but with more features, functionality, integration, and with no disruption to the building.

• Existing electrical rooms had no additional space for adding new or additional cabinets that may be needed for the lighting upgrade.  Removal of existing lighting control panels and replacing them with new panels would have been highly disruptive to the area occupants the lighting panels served along with dramatically extending the project completion schedule.

• Customer's lighting consultant reviewed all possible lighting control upgrade solutions and concluded that S2's approach was the only solution that could offer an upgrade (controller and relays) while maintaining all of the existing electrical infrastructure and existing area low voltage switches.

• All (768) existing RR7/RR9 GE relays were replaced with newer style 2-wire relays that included added features such as visible real time status of the relay, manual control/override of the relay state, and the ability to extract the real time status of the relay (on, off, absent, or fault) through the 2-wire control interface.  All wiring was inspected, documented, and any abandoned wiring or devices were removed with all documented.

• S2's S2BACLightDP was used as the lighting controller with the S2SWDP8 (designed for this project) used to support the existing GE light switches along with providing local group control within the lighting control cabinets.

• To enhance connectivity to the site's BMS and Facility Operator computers, The S2BACLightDP's used Bacnet MSTP connectivity throughout the building with strategically installed Bacnet IP routers so that all of the S2BACLightDP devices could be controlled, administered, or integrated into other Bacnet systems as needed by the customer. 
  

• The S2BACLightDP controllers were configured to operate semi-autonomously using their internal schedules and control functions.  This approach minimizes BMS network bandwidth and control needs, but also allows for full lighting control functionality during any BMS connectivity issues or upgrades.

• Unknown to the customer, the building's common area floor lighting was designed specifically around one of the functions within the old GE TLC system.  To address this, S2 added the specific lighting control function to the S2BACLightDP device within one day of discovering the need for this feature.

• The majority of the original GE Lighting enclosures were installed with its door swinging vertically.  S2 considered this a safety issue and so upgraded all of the enclosure doors such that they swung horizontally.  Lift-off hinges were used to allow the doors to be removed for easier, direct, and safe access to the enclosure interiors.  High Voltage isolation plates were also installed to prevent accidental contact with the high voltage wiring located on the load side of the relays.

• Significantly less Environmental impact than full rip out and replace solutions, as the vast majority of the original electrical infrastructure (cabinets, wiring, conduit, switches, etc) were reused and so less items had to be disposed of and/or recycled.

• Total project cost was significantly less (1/3 to 1/2) than any other solution, along with more features, functionality, versatility, and was done magnitudes faster.