Magazine’s Readers Choose Mission Critical MEP Firm as a 2011 Best of Business Finalist

Every year, Arkansas Business invites its readers to vote for their favorite businesses across dozens of categories: 68 categories on the 2011 online ballot. Results were revealed in a special section of the magazine’s December 12 issue.

We were delighted to be named a finalist in the poll’s “Best Engineering Firms” category –sandwiched between two of the very largest engineering firms in the state. To know that so many readers chose to name us, amid so many worthy firms in the state, is simply amazing.

Our humble thanks to all who thought of us first and foremost when casting their vote for Best Engineering Firm in 2011. We pledge to do all we can to honor your good opinion of us in the years to come.

Cofounder’s Data Center Design Expertise Endorsed by Uptime Institute

Uptime Institute endorses Dee for Tier-compliant data center design

This November, our co-founder Dee Brown successfully completed the rigorous training and examination to be designated an Accredited Tier Designer by the Uptime Institute.

Recognized as the premier data center authority, the Uptime Institute established the Tier Classification System, the international standard for rating the operational sustainability (“uptime”) of data center infrastructure.

Tier Certification is used to assess a facility’s potential for uninterrupted uptime over sustained periods during power outages and catastrophic events.

ATD candidates must thoroughly demonstrate their mastery of Tier-compliant design to win the Institute’s endorsement. To date, 366 professional engineers worldwide (including just a few dozen in the U.S.) have earned the Institute’s Tier Designer accreditation.

Data center and other high-risk facility directors can trust Dee and his mission critical design team to help them:

• Save Money by avoiding common Tier Classification misconceptions and related design errors
•  Streamline Planning & Scheduling by designing directly to the desired Tier objective, minimizing lengthy incremental phases
•  Achieve Tier Compliance with reliable on-time, on-budget design

Please join us in congratulating Dee for this latest achievement, and trust Brown Engineers to stay informed of emerging technologies that can benefit our clients.

Brown Engineers helps critical environments avoid the high risk and repercussions of downtime with time-sensitive, engineered solutions that ensure reliable power, controls, heat and cooling, using technology, energy and advanced monitoring capabilities.

Massive power outage proves no match for AIS’ Lightwave Data Center

Last week, San Diego and much of Southern California was suddenly plunged into a major blackout, apparently when an Arizona maintenance worker removed a monitoring device from a transmission line.

Millions of citizens and businesses were without power for anywhere from about 12 hours to nearly 3 days. While residents sweltered in 115-degree heat, energy engineers and technicians rushed to troubleshoot and reverse the outage.

Meanwhile, one of our data center clients, American Internet Services (AIS), powered right through the entire blackout on their own self-generated power. AIS operates seven premium data centers in California and Arizona, with over 200,000 square feet of raised floor data center space in their five San Diego facilities alone.

AIS provides secure server banks for cloud-based storage and handling of critical data. Like us, they serve clients who absolutely positively CANNOT afford any loss of power or sensitive data.

That’s why AIS invests so heavily in state-of-the-art equipment and technology: to ensure their centers offer superior power reliability, bandwidth, security and redundancy. Brown Engineers is currently spearheading development of a Stabilization Plan to help AIS further expand and harden their facilities.

We salute AIS President Tim Caulfield and Ken Carter, Vice President of Data Center Infrastructure, for their commitment to ongoing improvement and modernization of their “data fortresses.”

Read more

Building Information Models: Get What You Pay For!

3 Tips for Maximizing Your BIM Investment

Brown Engineers helps facility directors better manage their buildings with detailed 3D BIMs: Building Information Models. We use Revit CAD to record, sort and integrate data on mission critical infrastructure systems down to the smallest level of detail—literally the very nuts and bolts.

Revit also lets designers store that information in “live” schedules, which can then be combined into their respective virtual system models: architectural, mechanical, structural, etc. These individual system models are then integrated into a single Building Information Model (BIM), a dazzling visual array that can be peeled back to any layer desired, from architectural exteriors to air flow on a particular floor.

Done right, your BIM can streamline all these functions and make your life so much easier!

BIM: a serious investment with serious rewards.

Your BIM can be a great facility management tools for reporting, maintenance scheduling, cost estimating and planning, etc. Creating such a versatile BIM requires a major investment to properly record all that data accurately into live schedules that can be repurposed, updated, and edited in future. The rewards for this front-end investment are tremendous. A properly constructed BIM can help you:

• dramatically reduce operating costs
• improve building performance
• extend building lifespan
• provide extremely accurate construction documents
• easily update and and repurpose infrastructure data

Get what you pay for!

However, many BIMs are developed using cost-cutting measures that actually limit their usage and lifespan. Follow these 3 simple tips to get the most from your BIM investment:

1. Set Revit Standards.

When the right standards are not in place during development, you may not be able to update your BIM as future improvements are made.It’s important to enforce Revit CAD standards that ensure data is preserved in the right live formats: any shortcuts here in the beginning can forever reduce or eliminate your ability to locate, retrieve, repurpose and update your key system data.

2. Learn What Your BIM Can Do—and How to Do It.

A true BIM is a great tool for O&M staff, facility managers, design consultants and contractors. But you can’t use it if you don’t know how. And if you don’t know how to use your BIM, you’re severely limiting its tremendous potential to streamline operations, simplify reporting and generally make your life easier. A good consultant will provide or recommend comprehensive training options. A GREAT consultant will also get your input as your BIM is created, to create the most easily navigated, user-friendly, usage-compatible model possible.

3. Plan Ahead: Your BIM is a GREAT Design Tool, too!

On a recent hospital HVAC project, our team used existing BIM data to generate multiple design models. These models were sufficiently detailed to gain very accurate cost and scheduling data. This helped us identify which option best met current design needs and budget constraints while accommodating future improvement plans. Well-built BIMs and BIM-savvy facility management helps us design projects like this, that meet today’s needs and tomorrow’s goals.

Innovative AMI Installations Help Hot Springs Lower Costs, Speed Repairs, and Improve Accuracy

The wastewater system in Hot Springs, Arkansas features over 3,000 residential grinder lift stations spread across the city’s rugged terrain. Currently, those residents must notify the city by phone if their backyard grinder lift stations go into alarm status.

Smart SCADA meters (like the one installed on this control panel) will monitor backyard sewer lift stations in Hot Springs, so residents don't have to.

This can cause extended notification delays, major headaches and general unpleasantness for both sewer customers and maintenance personnel.

To remedy this, the city is engaged in an ambitious multi-year improvement plan to install automated monitoring for all its sewer lift stations.

Traditional radio telemetry communication is too expensive due to steep hills, tree-line obstructions, and the number of lift stations in use.

However, AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) technology offers tremendously enhanced, two-way automated communication between each lift station and the city utility’s SCADA* system.

Our expertise in SCADA programming and advanced monitoring systems paid off:

We developed a solution using Sensus Flexnet AMI meters at each lift station–at a fraction of the cost of traditional radio telemetry systems.

Upon completion, operations and maintenance personnel will be immediately, automatically alerted of alarm events at individual sites, and can remotely check on the live status and performance history of any site at any time, 24/7.

FlexNet AMI Unit

This option accomplishes the city’s automation goals despite multiple site issues, while costing much less to purchase and implement than other solutions. Currently under construction, these radio alarm meter installations represent another step forward in Hot Springs’ strategic SCADA Upgrade program.

*Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

Mission Critical Consulting Firm Recognized for Responsible, Sustainable Leadership and Business Practices

Brown Engineers is pleased to be included in the 2010 Circle of Excellence by PSMJ Resources, Inc.  PSMJ is the premier management consultant for the A/E/C (architecture, engineering, and construction) industries.

Brown Engineers among 41 firms nationwide recognized for excellent leadership, performance

Membership in the Circle of Excellence was determined by weighting each firm’s ranking in the 2010 PSMJ A/E Financial Performance Benchmark Report according to 13 individual benchmarks.

Brown’s 3 Keys to Success:

• Overhead Control
• Project Performance
• Effective Staff Utilization

PSMJ’s benchmarks reflect various business performance indicators, including overhead control, project performance, and staff utilization. The PSMJ A/E Financial Performance Benchmark Report compares financial data from a nationwide cross-section of A/E design and consulting firms.

“The PSMJ Circle of Excellence is not determined by firm revenue, profitability, or sheer size – nor is it determined by any subjective criteria. The 13 benchmarks that determine the PSMJ Circle of Excellence were chosen to reflect that the firms are well managed, have a strong client base, and are led in a responsible and sustainable manner,” explains H.E. “Dan” Daniels, PSMJ’s survey editor.

Sound Business Leadership
Promotes Superior Service and Value

“PSMJ believes that clients prefer to work with well run firms because they are more likely to provide superior service and value,” Daniels added.

“It is an honor to be recognized by PSMJ as one of the best managed firms in the country,” stated Dee Brown, Principal of Brown Engineers, LLC.

Dee graduated this summer from Leadership Arkansas Class IV, a prestigious statewide leadership mentoring program hosted by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas.

Targeted Growth Strategy Puts Clients First

Earlier this year, due to our client-focused growth strategy, Brown Engineers became one of the 15 largest engineering firms in Arkansas, when we expanded from an electrical to a mechanical/electrical engineering firm specializing in mission critical systems.

Our engineers work with utilities, hospitals, data centers, universities and other high risk environments that demand high availability of power but are outgrowing their existing infrastructure.  Their challenging projects typically have tight timelines with severe repercussions for any downtime.

Brown Engineers provides time sensitive, engineered solutions that ensure reliable power, controls, mechanical systems and advanced remote monitoring capabilities. As a result, our clients get critical power and building systems they can trust.

Randy G. Brown, CSI, CDT: Large-Scale HVAC Specialist

Randy G. Brown, CSI, CDT

Please join Brown Engineers in welcoming Senior Mechanical Designer Randy Brown to our staff. Randy has designed and managed large-scale HVAC projects from New York to California, further enhancing our ability to provide our clients the best possible value for their mission critical infrastructure.

Randy has over 30 years’ experience in HVAC design, specializing in large air handling systems and related ductwork, chillers, boiler plants and associated piping systems. He enjoys the challenge of fitting complex mechanical systems into the tight spaces commonly reserved for them.

Randy has served as the lead project manager on major improvements (up to $25 million construction cost) for institutional, industrial, commercial, and retail clients.

If you’re an operator or manager of a high-risk facility (hospital, data center, treatment plant, university) dealing with obsolete building infrastructure, we can help.

Reduce your energy and operating costs and yes, learn to trust your mission critical systems again–with targeted solutions that fit your needs and your budget.

Randy and the rest of our talented crew have over 250 years of combined experience helping facility administrators like you do just that.

The North Little Rock Electric Department (NLRED) in Central Arkansas provides power to 34,000 customers, whose non-automated meters must still be read manually, an inefficient use of manpower and transportation resources.

While AMRs (automated meter readers) could offset some of that monthly operating expense, they can only report consumption data. They can’t alert NLRED of power outages or other events requiring immediate attention—and they can’t receive or respond to diagnostic queries or other troubleshooting transmissions from maintenance personnel.

For that reason, Brown Engineers helped the city utility explore the next revolution in Smart Grid technology–an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system–as part of their Integrated Resource Master Plan.  Read more…

As mentioned in a previous blog post, our very own Rick Geraci was awarded the 2009-2010 Distinguished Service Award from the Central Chapter of the Arkansas Society of Professional Engineers (ASPE) in February. Last month at its annual State Conference in Hot Springs, ASPE honored Rick with its statewide award for Distinguished Service. This puts Rick in contention for the national Distinguished Service Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).

Rick Geraci receives statewide Distinguished Service Award from ASPE

Rick’s participation at the conference included his presentation on “Catastrophe Response and Professional Ethics,” which will be available in an extended format through this website in the coming months. If you’d like to ensure receiving his expanded presentation when available, sign up for our email updates.

What inspires Rick?
“extremely difficult projects that others shy away from.”

This January, Rick joined Brown Engineers, LLC, drawn by the chance to focus his creative energies solving electrical engineering problems exclusively in complex and critical environments.

He specializes in high-pressure, high-risk projects for mission critical systems at facilities that require high standards for power and reliability, but are outgrowing their existing infrastructure. Such projects typically feature tight timelines, high-risk environments, and zero tolerance for downtime: just the kinds of challenge that “distinguish” Rick within the engineering community.

Please join us in congratulating Rick…again!

Hot Springs National Park Quarter

The City of Hot Springs, Arkansas is a wonderful place to live or visit: fantastic lakes, great fishing, miles of beautiful tree-studded rugged terrain for outdoor enthusiasts, horse racing, a thriving arts community, and of course its famous thermal spas.

Last week, it hosted the U.S. Mint’s unveiling of the first coin in its new America the Beautiful Quarters Program, celebrating 56 national parks in each of our states and territories. Hot Springs National Park was established 178 years ago on April 20, 1832, the first such park in our nation.

But, did you know that this week marks another anniversary for Hot Springs? Okay, it’s not nearly as glamorous as launching a commemorative coin series, but it’s been one year since the City completed the HMI (Human-Machine Interface) Upgrade, designed by Brown Engineers, for its Ouachita Water Treatment Plant.

This project marks the city’s first step in its Master SCADA Plan, also developed by Brown Engineers. The master plan provides for a comprehensive, phased series of improvements to modernize its SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) water and sewer control systems.

We congratulate Hot Springs for its rich heritage, vibrant culture–and commitment to providing its citizens reliable and safe delivery of city water services. You can read more about Hot Springs’ Ouachita Water Treatment Plant HMI Upgrade on our Case Studies page.