Innovation in Global Power - Parsons Brinckerhoff

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Thermal – Achieving New Efficiencies, Reducing Carbon Emissions http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/publications/network/ Ensuring Continual Power Supply for New York City Hospitals By Ross Krupnik, New York, New York, 1-212-613-8889, krupnik@pbworld.com; and Warren Andrews, Atlanta, Georgia, 1-404-364-2650, andrewsW@pbworld.com Several of New York City’s hospitals and diagnostic and treatment centers needed upgrades to their power systems to ensure they would maintain services during power outages. The author tells about much of the research and planning PB conducted for these upgrades and, equally important, for ensuring that interruptions to power were minimized during construction. Related Web Sites: • Dormitory Authority of the State of New York: www.dasny.org • New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation: www.nyc.gov/hhc Ross Krupnik, an electrical engineer, has a B.S. degree with a double majorelectrical and computer engineering, and biomedical engineering. He completed his advanced studies in electrical engineering in June 2008. Ross joined PB in 2006 and served as an engineer on the hospital studies covered in this article. Warren Andrews, a senior engineering manager and PB vice president, was program manager for the New York City hospitals project. He specializes in power design. Warren has been with PB since 1997. 1 Level 1 trauma centers offer the most comprehensive emergency medical and surgical services available to patients suffering traumatic injuries. The Northeast Blackout of 2003, the largest power outage in North American history, revealed poorly performing stand-by emergency generators and emergency power distribution systems at some of New York City’s hospitals. This event led NYC Health and Hospital Corporation (NYC HHC), the owner, to have feasibility studies performed for upgrading emergency power systems at several of its major hospitals and diagnostic and treatment centers. The following year the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), which acts as NYC HHC’s agent, retained PB to validate the aforementioned feasibility studies and to develop design and construction documents for upgrading the emergency systems at nine hospitals—Bellevue, Coler, Elmhurst, Goldwater, Gouverneur, Harlem, Lincoln, Queens and Woodhull—and three diagnostic and treatment centers—Cumberland, Segunda Ruiz Belvis, and Morrisonia. Bellevue, Elmhurst, Harlem and Lincoln Hospitals received priority over the other facilities because they serve as Level 1 trauma centers. 1 At the time of writing (May 2008), Bellevue and Elmhurst Hospital projects were in the middle of the contractor bidding process. PB’s role was similar for each hospital: • Investigate the site. • Measure and record existing running loads. • Perform load analysis. • Provide a study report to document findings and recommendations to address system deficiencies. • Meet and correspond with local utility companies to request upgrades in utility services. • Provide bid documents and construction support services to upgrade emergency systems, including replacing and adding generators; synchronizing generator switchgear; and incorporating bypass isolation type transfer switches, emergency distribution switchboards and panelboards. • Provide bid documents and construction support services to address code violations associated with the existing emergency systems and to connect code-required HVAC equipment to emergency power. Design Challenges General Challenge. Implementing electric power upgrades within active hospital facilities is challenging, and it is essential that electric power be maintained during construction. Even a partial loss of power can cause severe operational problems along a chain of activities: • Power loss to lighting systems can make it impossible to dispense medicine accurately, carry out precise medical laboratory work or perform surgical procedures. • Power loss to refrigerators storing tissue, bone or blood can leave the facility without crucial resources. • Power loss to essential life support equipment, such as heart pumps, medical vacuum pumps, dialysis machines, and ventilators, can result in loss of life. Developing design and construction documents that virtually eliminate interruptions to electric power during construction was paramount. Thorough up-front planning was essential so that these documents incorporate effective strategies for minimizing the impact of construction on hospital operations. We exercised just such careful planning for the NYC HHC facilities, and included language for sequencing construction into design and construction documents for each one. During the PB Network #68 / August 2008 16
Thermal – Achieving New Efficiencies, Reducing Carbon Emissions http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/publications/network/ planning phase, our team: • Performed detailed surveys and consulted with facility administrators, maintenance and operation staff and other personnel to gain a thorough understanding of specific functions in each area of each facility • Identified and documented the location of all essential equipment, and critical and life-safety loads • Identified the local source of normal and emergency power serving all these loads • Identified areas in each facility that would serve as “swing space” for locating temporary power distribution equipment. This planning allowed us to produce drawings specifying construction phasing for accurate, detailed equipment removals and relocations and for temporary power. It also enabled us to identify windows of opportunity for scheduled, short-duration interruptions of power to minimize impacts on facility operations. Bellevue Hospital. After our analysis of the existing and planned electrical loads, we discovered that the hospital’s existing four 400 kW generators and one 600 kW generator could not accommodate a total failure of the normal electrical power feed from the local utility. We proposed: • Replacing the 400 kW generators with four new 725 kW generators and one 1500 kW generator to provide enough power for the existing and future loads. These would be installed and synchronized with the remaining 600 kW generator. • Replacing the existing emergency switchgear. • Modifying and upgrading 35 of the 47 existing automatic transfer switches (ATSs) to accommodate future loads. • Upgrading various systems, including the fire pump, fire detection system, fire alarms, and alarms for medical gas and vacuum systems. Various components of the emergency electrical equipment are located throughout the hospital rather than at centralized locations. Further, Bellevue Hospital is America’s oldest public hospital, and now has little room for larger equipment. We collaborated with facility management and the manufacturer of the switchgear, ATSs, and generators to fit the equipment in the available space. (For example, once we determined how much space was available for switchgear, manufacturers worked within those restrictions to develop switchgear frames (boxes) that fit.) The four 725 kW generators will be installed on the 13th floor close to the existing 600 kW generator, while the 1500 kW generator was planned to be installed in the sub-cellar. The paralleling switchgear for these generators is on the 13th floor. Toward the end of the design process, DASNY asked that we revise our design for the sub-cellar 1500 kW generator to offer it more protection against flood damage. We raised the generator six feet (2 m) and placed it on a new platform. It will be supported in an areaway next to an on-ramp along the FDR Drive, a heavily traveled highway on Manhattan’s east side. The 47 ATSs are located in electrical rooms throughout the hospital. Our engineers had to arduously examine the available riser space to determine where the replacement switches could be located. This effort required the engineers to visit each floor of the hospital and venture into areas that required special security by the hospital or NYC Department of Corrections because of the patients that occupied those areas. Elmhurst Hospital. As was the case at Bellevue, Elmhurst Hospital’s current generators could not accommodate a total failure of the normal electrical power feed from the local utility. We proposed installing generators at three locations, each with different setups, and making additional upgrades, as follows: • Replacing one 350 kW generator with a new 600 kW generator and synchronizing it with an existing 400 kW generator • Replacing another 350 kW generator with a new 600 kW generator • Synchronizing three existing 600 kW generators with one new 1500 kW generator • Upgrading 16 of the 30 existing ATSs and adding five new ATSs to accommodate future loads • Upgrading various systems, including the fire pump, fire detection system and fire alarms. The generators at the three locations will be activated based on the particular load that was lost and the size of the power outage. If for some reason the local generator cannot supply enough load, it will activate and synchronize with the 1500 kW generator. This built in redundancy helps to assure that patients, doctors, and hospital staff will not notice the change from normal to emergency power. While Elmhurst is not as tall a building as Bellevue and has its emergency power equipment at three centralized locations, these locations are located at nearly opposite ends of the hospital. This configuration requires that cable between the generators and paralleling switchgear be run through the cable support system in the sub-basement. The conduit runs are layered many times over and noticeably reduce the height of portions of the sub-basement corridors. An electrician at this hospital told us that the supports for the conduit had to be replaced recently because the weight of the conduit caused the supports to buckle. This reduced the available space for new conduit and made it more challenging to run new feeders. PB worked closely with facility management and its electricians to make the most efficient use of the hospital’s remaining space for new feeders and equipment. 17 PB Network #68 / August 2008
Page 1 and 2: A technical journal by Parsons Brin
Page 3 and 4: http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/
Page 5 and 6: Thermal - Achieving New Efficiencie
Page 15: Thermal - Achieving New Efficiencie
Page 21 and 22: GENERATION: Hydropower - New Techno
Page 23 and 24: Hydropower - New Technologies, New
Page 47 and 48: Renewables - The Risks, Concerns an
Page 59 and 60: Transporting Power Across the Grid
Page 67 and 68:
Transporting Power Across the Grid
Page 69 and 70:
Distributing Power to Users Researc
Page 71 and 72:
Distributing Power to Users The fin
Page 73 and 74:
Distributing Power to Users initial
Page 75 and 76:
Distributing Power to Users A Surve
Page 77 and 78:
http://www.pbworld.com/news_events/
Page 79 and 80:
Distributing Power to Users http://
Page 81 and 82:
Planning and the Role of Regulators
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
DEPARTMENTS PB’s power specialist
Page 93 and 94:
Networking • What CPUs and PLCs w
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Networking 8. Dash Style. You can u
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Going Green: Walking the Walk!! By
Page 103 and 104:
show all

Innovation in Global Power - Parsons Brinckerhoff

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?