Visal Leng, President, Asia-Pacific, Johnson Controls based in Singapore made a presentation to the Green Building Congress, held in Hyderabad from September 25 to 28. The Journal interviewed him on the sidelines of the event. Here are some excerpts:

Journal (J): What are some recent noteworthy smart building/city projects by Johnson Controls?
Visal Leng (V): Johnson Controls is at the forefront of smart facilities with solutions enabled by artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The Bee’ah new headquarters in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, is an example of an office of the future. Built with a wide array of intelligent edge systems, devices and software, the building is optimized for energy efficiency and space utilization, and helps improve occupant productivity through a virtual AI persona to handle facility booking and
ambient environment control. Facility managers have real-time visibility of all assets within the building, and leverage facial recognition technology to enable frictionless access or to control access to sensitive areas. The building is designed to reduce water consumption by 20 percent, is fully powered by renewable energy and has zero net energy consumption.

In India, Johnson Control’s partnership with Infosys, an end-toend integrator of smart space solutions, creates an ecosystem that will make buildings safe and sustainable. With Johnson Control Enterprise Management solution, an energy, asset, occupant and tenant billing management system, facilities managers will be able to make intelligent data-driven decisions to run their buildings more effi ciently and improve occupant experience.

J: Regarding India’s smart cities journey, what are your thoughts on what has gone well and what can be improved?
V: Developing smart cities is a journey, not a destination. As cities progress along this journey, they will need to continuously improve, innovate and set new goals and benchmarks. India’s Smart Cities Mission has demonstrated the need for a planned, systematic, holistic and inclusive approach, while recognizing the fl uidity of the defi nition of a smart city as containing a wish list of infrastructure and services that describes the citizen’s level of aspiration.

It is important that citizen involvement is not just about ceremonial participation in governance. Rather, it is about getting residents involved from the beginning in the planning of smart projects, deciding on smart solutions to be deployed, implementing the reforms, overseeing the implementation, and designing postproject structures to make the smart city developments sustainable.

J: How did the 17th Green Building Congress 2019 go and what are your key takeaways?
V: The Green Building Congress is an excellent platform for technology providers such as Johnson Controls to play an active role in shaping the future of cities and enabling the sustainability landscape. We’ve gained a deeper understanding of our customers’ needs through in-depth discussions, and exchanged insights on future developments with industry partners through networking. The speaking opportunities and media interactions further allowed us to share our vision for smart, livable cities with a wider audience.

J: What are the core competencies of Johnson Controls that would make it the preferred choice for smart building/city projects in India?
V: Johnson Controls has more than 130 years of experience in the industry; no other company offers a more comprehensive buildingtechnology portfolio including HVACR, energy management, security systems and fire protection. We have harnessed this unique depth and breadth of expertise in the built environment to develop digital solutions that can finally address the data problem. Now, our Digital Vault can ingest data from disparate systems and provide structured data, thus enabling digital transformation of any building at a scale and speed not previously possible.

Our efforts have been recognized. We are named ‘IoT Innovator of the Year’ in 2019 by IoT Breakthrough Awards, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global IoT market today. We also won the Digie Award for ‘Most Intelligent Building – Corporate Headquarters’ for the groundbreaking work on Bee’ah’s new headquarters in the UAE.

J: What is the HVAC related product strategy of Johnson Controls in India in the medium term?
V: Enabling HVAC equipment through digital solutions for analytics and predictive maintenance as well as integrating them into operations in the building smoothly, like we did for the Singapore smart hospital, is part of our overall digital vision. As for HVAC equipment, Johnson Controls has a very comprehensive range and we continue to improve them so they are more environmentally-responsible, energy-efficient and better able to meet the wide variety of needs of our customers with different budgets. Highlights this year include centrifugal models YZ and YMC2, as well as screw chillers YGWH and YVWH.
• Launched two years ago, the YORK® YZ magnetic bearing centrifugal chiller is designed to be the industry’s most efficient, environment-friendly centrifugal chiller.
• The YORK® YMC2 centrifugal magnetic drive chiller addresses energy, sustainability, noise, and uptime — the most pressing concerns of facility owners.
• Our state-of-the-art chiller, the YORK® YVWH premiumefficiency variable speed water-cooled screw chiller, is designed to bring even greater green building efficiencies. Its IPLV reaches a high 10.77 that surpasses all China GB and AHRI standards.
• The YORK® YGWH premium-efficiency water-cooled screw chiller is another high efficiency solution for the Indian market. Its chiller efficiency of COP 6.68 exceeds all China GB and AHRI standards.