Harbour Town

Harbour Town is one of Queensland’s largest outlet shopping centres, housing more than 250 tenancies across a sprawling retail precinct. The brief called for a single, unified building automation system capable of covering the full range of mechanical plant (from central chiller plant through to individual tenancy air conditioning) while also providing real-time energy visibility across a dense network of electrical sub-meters.

Bar-Tech Automation deployed 300 BMS controllers linked over a combination of dedicated fibre optic and ethernet infrastructure, ensuring reliable communication across the entire site. Two chillers, 200 fan coil units, 40 VAVs, and 100 AC units are all monitored and controlled through OpenBMCS, alongside 250-plus electrical meters that feed the centre’s energy reporting dashboard. A green wall environmental monitoring system was also integrated into the network.

The OpenBMCS web server gives facilities staff and management remote access to graphics, alarms, and energy data from any device. Because OpenBMCS carries no ongoing per-seat licensing fees, the centre’s operating costs remain predictable as the tenancy mix grows and additional monitoring points are added over time.