The Commissioning Authority (CxA) is a professional service organization with emphasis on building Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing Systems (MEP) and the members experiences encompass MEP design consulting engineering services, construction/installations, start up and maintenance.
The team members at CxA have been involved with construction industry for over 30 years and are actively participating in today’s integrated design process that requires the commissioning professional services through the following step by step approach.
Pre-Design Phase
Discuss with the owner the specifics of their intended use of the future building and develop Owner Project Requirement (OPR). CxA will assist owner by asking the right questions and ensure an educated answer is finally documented to be used for the subsequent steps of the commissioning process.
Submission of OPR to the design team to be used for the preparation of the Basis of Design Document (BOD). BOD will integrate the OPR objective by proposing the building MEP system in the form of system description and how they will achieve the OPR.
The commissioning Authority will draft the Commissioning Plan (CP) using the OPR and BOD and will outline the steps necessary for the Commissioning Process.
Design Phase
CxA review of the MEP construction documents will provide comments on the drawings and project manual (specifications) to assure inclusion of OPR, BOD and contractors’ responsibilities towards future functionality and performance of the systems. At this stage also serviceability of the proposed systems will be verified on the construction documents including drawings and the project manual.
Construction Phase
CxA meets with Construction Team to review and inform their responsibilities including the submittal and shop drawings requirements, types of the Prefunctional and Functional tests required, the necessary paperwork and forms for these tests and their schedules. Also the requirements for Closeout Documents and training of the maintenance staff at the completion of the construction will be discussed.
CxA reviews MEP shop drawings and comments as necessary to assure conformance with the commissioning requirements.
CxA prepares the Project’s Commissioning Log and will observe conducting and will verify completion of the required tests by the construction team. The Commissioning Log will include any and all start up and functionality issues and the actions taken to resolve them until final resolution is reached on all.
What happens after Construction?
Building owner’s shall ensure that after the commissioning process is completed, all proper maintenance procedures are followed by the building engineering staff . It is recommended that after a few years a retro-commissioning activity be conducted to revisit the functionality of then “the existing systems” and perhaps apply new energy conservation measures that might be available at that time and make sure the systems function as efficient as they can be. Please refer to our Retro-Commission page for more information.