The Building
1111 Broadway is a 24-story, 601,014 sqft Class A office tower in Oakland's CBD, sitting directly atop the 12th Street BART station. The building holds LEED Gold certification (62 points, LEED EB v2009, recertified September 2019) with column-free 24,000 sqft floor plates.
The Challenge
Variable Air Volume (VAV) systems in large office towers waste significant energy through static pressure setpoints that don't adapt to real-time conditions. Traditional BAS controls react to current states rather than predicting future needs, creating constant overcooling and fan energy waste — especially in a building with mixed occupancy patterns across 24 floors.
The Solution
Siemens deployed Dynamic VAV Optimization (DVO) — a machine learning overlay that predicts future building conditions rather than reacting to current states. The system operates in two modes:
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Green Mode: Prioritizes comfort and energy efficiency by dynamically adjusting static pressure and supply air temperature based on real-time VAV zone conditions across the building.
Defence Mode: Balances airborne pathogen transmission risk with comfort, managing fresh air changes, humidity, and temperature while respecting ventilation constraints (critical during and post-COVID).
Key technical capabilities:
- Continuously determines optimal static pressure and supply air temperature strategy
- Makes real-time adjustments to maintain healthy, efficient environments
- Identifies sensor faults automatically (e.g., detects when a temperature sensor receives direct sunlight and compensates)
- No hardware replacement — software overlay on existing BAS
The Results
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Energy Reduction | ~25% HVAC savings |
| AHU Static Pressure Reduction | Average 57% |
| Fan Power Reduction | Average 35% |
| Annualized Energy Savings (DVO Benchmark)* | ~126,000 kWh per 5 AHUs |
| LEED Status | Gold maintained throughout |
| Building Class | Class A preserved |
*Note: Annualized kWh figure reflects DVO benchmark performance across comparable Class A office deployments (source: HPAC Magazine). Site-specific M&V data for 1111 Broadway available upon request.
The 57% reduction in static pressure while maintaining airflow to all terminal units is particularly significant — it means the system found that the building was running its fans more than twice as hard as necessary. That fan energy waste translates directly to electricity costs and carbon.
M&V Note
Performance verified through continuous monitoring of AHU static pressure, fan power consumption, and zone-level airflow delivery. Savings calculated against pre-DVO baseline with weather and occupancy normalization per IPMVP Option B methodology.
The Takeaway for CRE Leaders
DVO demonstrates that machine learning can find hidden waste that decades of traditional BAS tuning missed. A 57% reduction in static pressure means most Class A buildings are dramatically over-pressurizing their air distribution — and paying for it in fan energy. The system's ability to detect sensor faults and self-adapt also reduces ongoing commissioning costs. For LEED-certified buildings, DVO provides documented energy performance improvement without risking certification status.
Sources: Siemens Dynamic VAV Optimization Case Study (Smart Energy Decisions, 2021), HPAC Magazine ("Dynamic VAV Optimization"), USGBC LEED Project Database (1111 Broadway Recertification, 2019), LoopNet Building Specifications.