Refers to a multi-year research effort at a U.S. university which has produced a comprehensive process that can be used for commissioning central HVAC plants of large buildings. The process identifies the players (responsible parties in commissioning) and discusses their roles. Presents a commissioning process composed of checks, tests, and/or a review at key milestones of the process. Identifies four separate engineering tasks to be performed to ensure proper commissioning and operation of systems. Separate tasks and responsibilities are envisioned for a design engineer, a design review engineer a field supervision engineer and a commissioning engineer. Discusses the roles of the owner, design engineer, utility, design review engineer, manufacturer (vendor), general contractor (constructor), field supervision engineer, commissioning engineer, maintenance contractor and operator. Also discusses information flow between engineers and presents flow charts and tables showing the division of responsibilities. Discusses the cost of commissioning through the example of thermal energy storage systems. Also presents final performance test procedure that allows the utility to contractually link incentive payments to actual performance capability.

KEYWORDS: Commissioning, management, research, USA, heating, ventilation, costs, air conditioning, performance, engineers, contractors.