Utility buildings with a heating or air conditioning system of 290kW nominal capacity or more must have a building automation and control system (GACS) from 1 January 2026. How do you, as a building owner or manager, ensure that you meet this obligation in time? Five experts in the field of control technology and building automation provide advice. "It is often custom work and requires cooperation in the chain".
The GACS obligation gives substance to the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). This sets requirements to improve the energy performance of buildings. From 2030, all newly completed buildings must be emission-free. In 2050, all existing buildings must be converted into emission-free buildings.
In order to achieve these goals, the EPBD is being further specified step by step. GACS is part of the measures from the EPBD III and will be mandatory from 2026 for utility buildings with a heating or air conditioning system from 290kW nominal capacity. In a few years, GACS will also become mandatory for utility buildings with a nominal capacity from 70kW.
Moving train
“The regulations regarding the energy performance of buildings are a moving train and with every step you take you have to take into account what is yet to come”, say Gerben de Haan (Siemens), Ben Veenstra (SPIE Nederland), Herman van de Scheur and Hugo Theunissen (Rensen Regeltechniek) and Jan Bakker (Royal HaskoningDHV). They are active in a working group via FHI Gebouw Automatisering that, together with Techniek Nederland and TVVL from the industry organizations, is drawing up a guideline for the implementation of GACS. Within this group, specialists from the entire chain join forces: technology suppliers, system integrators, installers and consultants.
Cooperation required
“GACS is not a subject that you can approach in the traditional way, but only in collaboration with stakeholders within your own organization and in the market,” says Gerben de Haan, sales manager at Siemens Smart Infrastructure and board member of the industry association FHI Gebouwautomatisering. “It is a complex subject that requires knowledge and experience from multiple disciplines. That is the added value of the collaboration within FHI Gebouw Automatisering on this theme. By joining forces, we help customers to comply with regulations and make their buildings more energy-efficient.”
Energy monitoring
Within a GACS, building automation and energy monitoring come together. Most buildings that are GACS-obligated from 2026 will already have a building management system (BMS). This must be integrated with a control system that has the following functions based on the GACS obligation:
- Permanently register, maintain, analyze and adjust energy consumption
- Automatically test the energy efficiency of the building, detect performance losses and pass on improvement proposals to the manager
- Allow technical building systems and other devices (from different manufacturers) in the building to communicate with each other
Using data
“Most buildings already contain a lot of information, but little is done with it,” says Jan Bakker, building automation consultant at Royal HaskoningDHV. “The GACS obligation retrieves data so that you can actively interpret it. For example, a GACS continuously checks whether the most energy-efficient temperatures are present everywhere in your building. For example, you do not need to heat an unoccupied room. Deviations are automatically reported from the system to the building manager, who is then able to improve energy performance and report on it.”
Functionality and tooling
A GACS is not a product from a box that you 'just' have installed by a technical service provider. It is about functionality and tooling. Ben Veenstra, consultant at SPIE Nederland, points this out. “The aim of the EPBD is to have buildings perform optimally in terms of energy technology within the Programme of Requirements that has been drawn up for the building. The frameworks are therefore already in place. Think of Frisse Scholen or BEN buildings (Almost Energy Neutral). A GACS ensures that the technical systems in the building (continue to) do what they are supposed to do according to the Programme of Requirements. If the function of the building changes, for example, settings will also have to be adjusted.”
Customization
According to Herman van de Scheur, control technology advisor at Rensen, the biggest challenge lies in the integration of the building management and energy control systems so that data can be freely exchanged between the two systems. “This will always require a lot of customization, because no two systems are the same. In order to meet the requirements, the technical systems in your building must be adequately dimensioned, installed and adjusted and must be able to communicate with each other. This requires a great deal of knowledge about building automation and control technology.” Gerben de Haan agrees: “You cannot capture a GACS in one solution and customization is required. Cybersecurity must also be taken into account. A system with which you are going to analyze, report and report must be well secured. There are now excellent hybrid solutions that securely combine data processing on premise with the cloud.”
Asset Management
A good GACS helps organizations reduce their carbon footprint and demonstrates that they have their asset management in order. “In an energy-efficient building, all assets are under control,” says Veenstra. “This means that they run stably and energy-optimally under all circumstances. As soon as a machine starts to cycle, a red flag automatically appears to indicate that you need to intervene. So it is not just a matter of having a system, you also have to get to work with it.” De Haan: “Based on the function of your building, you look at how you can improve energy performance. Do you have the right settings? Do certain installations need to run continuously? That is an ongoing process.”
Bundling expertise
As FHI Gebouw Automatisering we join forces to describe the desired functionality for the users together with consultants, after which the experienced system integrators and installers realize a future-proof building automation installation with the available intelligent technology from the suppliers of GACS systems. This allows building managers and maintenance and management companies to properly manage, maintain and monitor the installations, so that systems will function better energetically and also meet the legal registration and reporting obligations.
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