COMMISSIONING PLAN | What, Why, When, How with Template

A Commissioning Plan is a written document outlining the steps, tasks, activities, and responsibilities to be conducted and adhered to, ensuring that the overall project commissioning process is understood and delivered by all parties involved.

Usually created by the Commissioning Agent or General/Main Contractor, it is used as an aid to guide the team, ensuring that a building’s systems are programmed, sequenced, strategized, designed, installed, tested, verified, documented, handed over, and operating in line with the Owners Project Requirements [OPR].

The document will cover the following:

• The process to be adopted,
• Tasks and activities,
• Team structure,
• Responsibilities of the team members,
• Communication channels,
• Documentation,
• Reporting,
• Training,
• Commissioning programme/schedule.

🟩 Other Names for a Commissioning Plan

Through the years, we have heard and come across other terms that reference the document, such as:

• Cx Plan
• Testing and Commissioning Plan
• HVAC Commissioning Plan
• AC Commissioning Plan
• Building Commissioning Plan
• MEP Testing and Commissioning Plan
• LEED Commissioning Plan
• Total Building Commissioning Plan

These are all the same document.

🟩 Why write a plan?

There are a few reasons to write a Cx Plan:

• to ensure that the whole project team involved in the commissioning process fully understands their roles and responsibilities, ensuring that its a success and the building, upon handover, is designed, installed, tested, verified, documented, and operating in line with the Owners Project Requirements [OPR],
• to meet Green Building expectations, such as LEED if being utilized on a project, as it usually is a requirement under the commissioning requirements section,
• to meet client-specific requirements, mainly if they stipulate commissioning processes such as ACG, ASHRAE, BCxA, BSRIA, CIBSE, NEBB. A commissioning plan forms part of those requirements.

🟩 Responsibility Matrix

To create, write, update and approve the commissioning plan, several people and consultants will be involved, depending on the stage as noted below:

🟩 When is it Issued and Updated?

As can be seen in the responsibility matrix above, the plan will be created, written, and updated at the following times [in line with the overall project commissioning process]:

Other articles that we have written and are referenced here that can be read:

BUILDING COMMISSIONING | Why it’s Important & Benefits…

4 DIFFERENT TYPES | of Building Commissioning
 
THE COMMISSIONING PROCESS | Explained [with download flow]

OWNER’S PROJECT REQUIREMENT | [OPR] What is it & Template

TRAINING MANUAL | for Operational Staff at Handover [with template]

🟩 How Do You Write and Develop a Cx Plan?

The best way to write and develop the plan is to use a template, but if this is not available and you are starting from scratch, you can use the five steps below:

🟧 Step 1: Understand Responsibilities

Using the ‘Responsibility Matrix’ above, complete the table with the ‘actual’ project requirements.

This will allow you and the project to understand who is doing what and when clearly.

🟧 Step 2: Commissioning Plan Template Format

The next step is to create the ‘Index’ of the document, detailing what is expected to be included within the final document.

🚀 The ASHRAE Commissioning Process document can be referred to for this or use the template below, which uses it as a base and adds more specific items that we feel are needed to be covered.

🟧 Step 3: Obtain Information

The following information should be obtained and reviewed to allow the information to be correct, relevant, and specific for the Project and inclusion within the Commissioning Plan.

The information should be pretty easy to obtain and can usually be located in,

• the tender,
• the schematic design,
• the detailed design,
• commissioning studies, and
• reviews

Below is a table detailing the main items of information that could be referenced, the reason why we reference it, and where the information can usually be found:

🟧 Step 4: Review the Information

Once all the information has been gathered, it is then that we can start to review it and start to write the Cx Plan.

The aim here is to evaluate/review the information making notes and observations of anything that will help.

We use the following order of review, which allows us to complete the Sections as noted [from Step 2 above]:

🟧 Step 5: Write the Plan & Issue

Once all the information has been reviewed and notes made, proceed to write the plan.

Once the Owner/Client Team accepts, issue to the project/contractors via the Tender Documents or, if the Commissioning Consultant is not involved in the project’s early stages, issue via document issuing protocols.

Ensure the document is updated throughout the project in line with the above section ‘When is it Issued and Updated’.

🟩 Word or Excel?

Depending on the project’s preferences, either software can create the Commissioning Plan.

We usually create in Microsoft Word as it is more manageable and formatting is much easier.

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⬜ Commissioning Plan Template and Download

To help us expand the site and create more resources, we created the documentation below in [Microsoft Word] for download.

Click the ‘Buy Here‘ button to purchase the fully editable copy of the document below, which can be used immediately.

You will direct to our shop page.

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