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Imagine the size and scope of mechanical and electrical systems needed to serve a 700,000 sq. ft. sports and entertainment venue.

The T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO, is that venue, and a team of electricians from P1鈥檚 Building Technologies division was awarded the building automation upgrade, allowing all these systems to work and communicate seamlessly.

You鈥檇 never know it looking at the compact control panels, but these upgrades throughout the facility perform a very big job.

Some of the major equipment controlled by the panels include boilers, chillers, and large air handling units (AHUs), all of which are critical to the functionality and comfort of the Center.

Project Manager and Electrical Foreman Michael Green said P1 won the job through competitive bid.

鈥淛ohnson Controls was the existing controls contractor for the Center, and P1 was able to come up with a number that met their bid criteria,鈥� Michael said. 鈥淲e also partnered with Max Electric, which helped us secure the bid.鈥�

Both Michael and project Foreman John Ciesiensky agree the biggest challenge has been working around the busy T-Mobile Center schedule.

鈥淚n an event center with so much going on, there鈥檚 no shutting down, and disruption has to be kept to a minimum, so we have adjusted our own hours and worked hard to ensure we get the work done around T-Mobile鈥檚 busy schedule,鈥� Michael said.

鈥淲e鈥檝e studied the event calendar carefully, and coordinated with the T-Mobile Facilities team to ensure the controllers and units we鈥檙e changing over are either non-critical for the upcoming events or back online in the new system prior to it,鈥� John explained.

John also notes that upgrading someone else鈥檚 work presents its own challenges, which P1 was able to meet.

From a hands-on perspective in the field, there鈥檚 also the challenges that come with following up on someone else鈥檚 work,鈥� John said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 always use the exact paths as the previous electricians, so we have to investigate and then quickly decide whether to follow in their footsteps or create our own new pathways through the space.鈥�

Despite the obvious challenges, Michael says it鈥檚 been a really cool project to work on.

鈥淓veryone knows the arena, and even though most people will never think about what goes into keeping an arena this size running, it鈥檚 rewarding to know our P1 team is playing a major role in the functionality of the building, supporting the performances and events that happen there,鈥� Michael said.

鈥淪eeing the behind-the-scenes areas of the arena and everything that goes into preparing for events is a unique VIP perspective most people will never get to experience,鈥� John added.

鈥淔or me, the challenges are the fun part,鈥� John said. 鈥淚 enjoy solving problems and finding solutions, so any challenges are like real-life puzzles and logic problems. The results of solving them make it worthwhile!鈥�

The team has approximately one-third of the controls upgrade project complete, with an estimated completion date of February 2024.

Quick Facts

• 9 miles of cable

• 24 AHUs/varying sizes

• 160 Fan Coil Units

• 110 Variable Air Volume Systems (VAVs)