Engine & Turbine Technology
Standby power keeps children’s hospital running
A multi-million dollar hospital is ensuring its 24/7 operation via generator sets from a US expert, reveals Kevin McKinney.
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n October 2012, Nemours, a US-based non-profit children’s health system, opened a new US$397 million hospital in Orlando, Florida. Te state-of-the-art children’s hospital supports families in Florida and the Southeast USA in need of highly specialised medical care. Like all critical care facilities, Nemours is
required to have emergency standby power systems that can be online within seconds of a utility outage. To meet current and future power generation needs, the hospital installed a new central power plant equipped with four 2,250 kW MTU Onsite Energy generator sets with paralleling switchgear to ensure that patient lives are not put at grave risk in the event of a power outage.
be capable of handling the consistent demand for critical power needed to ensure patient safety.
Battling with Mother Nature Te hospital’s central Florida location presents two uncontrollable challenges: heat and hurricanes. By working side-by-side with local MTU Onsite Energy distributor, Florida Detroit Diesel-Allison (FDDA), Roque was able to equip Nemours with an emergency power system capable of withstanding the elements. Roque and FDDA installed the four generator sets on the second floor of the hospital to decrease potential for flood damage and ensure that the plant can provide enough backup power to supply electricity for more than seven days in the event of an outage. To further guarantee power when it’s needed, Nemours tests its generator sets and switchgear on a monthly basis by triggering different areas of the hospital to simulate a power interruption. In recent years, the area has had very mild hurricane seasons and although there has not yet been a single interruption in power, Roque is
confident that if something should happen, the generator sets will work perfectly. Originally, Nemours had designed its power
Fig. 1. The Nemours Children’s Health system provides family-centred c are in children’s hospitals and clinics in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.
“Generator sets are vital to hospitals today,” says Nelson Roque, director of facilities and construction at Nemours. “Tey keep critical systems such as resuscitation and life-saving machines online, but it’s not only those systems that depend on generator sets. Everything runs on electricity, and without it, we really couldn’t function as a hospital.” Te MTU Onsite Energy central energy plant has provided standby power to Nemours Children’s Hospital for nearly two years as the 24/7 paediatric care facility has treated patients from 20 countries, three US territories, 41 states and 59 counties in Florida. During that time, the generator sets have proven to
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plant around a competitor system, but following a visit to Daytona Beach’s Halifax Health Medical Center, Nemours decided on MTU Onsite Energy. Halifax relies on standby power from a 4.5 MW MTU Onsite Energy power system that was installed in 2009 and has been recognised for its excellence by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which used it as an example of “the way it should be done.” Tis, coupled with the 85% load factor of the engine that powers the four 2,250 kW generator sets, impressed the team at Nemours and confirmed their decision. l
For more information ✔ at
www.engineerlive.com/ipe Kevin McKinney is with MTU Onsite Energy.
www.mtuonsiteenergy.com
Fig. 2. Four 2,250 kW MTU Onsite Energy generator sets with paralleling switchgear are in use at Nemours Children’s Hospital.
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