ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING


Newly installed Midel oil-filled transformers in the Dental Hospital.


explained, “we worked through the new switchboards’ design and functionality, and LPC tailored them to our requirements.” Before this, a number of the project team visited other hospitals, to view existing switchboard installations.” Other key considerations included how the switchboards would look, how the cables would enter and be terminated, how easily the Estates team and any sub- contractors would be able to maintain them, and the ability to add to or modify them. The team also visited the manufacturer, and, as part of factory testing, simulated different component failures.”


Andy Fairless explained that removing the existing LV switchboard in the Leazes Wing, and replacing it with three new units, was ‘by far the most challenging element’ of the HV LV upgrade. He explained: “Much of the rest of the work entailed fairly straightforward replacement of inadequately-sized transformers, and replacing some internal HV cabling. We have two HV rings at the RVI – an open ring and a closed ring. The former featured cables of varying sizes, which meant we were limited on our future plans where the cables weren’t large enough to support the New Specialist Hospital Building or ‘Cardio’ block.”


A challenging location


The Leazes Wing’s main switchboard, which had to be removed and replaced, is on the ground floor, about 300 metres from the nearest exit. Andy Fairless explained: “The switchroom was thus not easy to get to with the three new five-tonne transformers we also had to install. To do this, we had to come down corridors, including in part of the Newcastle University buildings next to the RVI, and to remove some walls and door frames. We brought transformers in at night, when the hospital wasn’t busy. Getting them in required a lot of


32 Health Estate Journal August 2020


An upgrade to the Dental HV switchgear by Integrated Utility Services (IUS).


brute force, manhandling them down the corridors on skids.”


In fact, the team undertook the new transformer installation and the replacement of the main Leazes Wing switchboard at about the same time. Andy Fairless explained: “Many of the transformer replacements were fairly easy to manage; it was mainly a question of transformer isolation, closing a LV bus coupler, and restoring power to an area which would have had 15-20 seconds of disruption of service. We did this over a weekend, with minimal impact on service.”


Almost a year’s work


The electrical upgrade project began in September 2018, and the team undertook its last switch in mid-December last year. Overall, Andy Fairless noted, the work to replace the Leazes Wing switchboard with three new switchboards took almost a year. He explained: “We brought the new LV switchboard 3 in first, because the switchroom was large enough to be able to accommodate an additional switchboard alongside the existing one. This enabled us to start swapping services from old to new quite swiftly. However, to install switchboards 2 and 1, we began removing the old existing switchboard, but had to keep part of it ‘live’ while


‘‘ We brought


transformers in at night, when the hospital wasn’t busy. Getting them in required a lot of brute force, manhandling them down the corridors on skids


removing the other half to make room. We removed old switchboard components as we installed new ones, which took a monumental effort, particularly given that some of the switches had cables feeding ITU and HDU. Equally, some of the switches had not been operated for a number of years, so we had no certainty over switching them off and then being able to switch them back on again.”


Patient Safety coordinators Andy Fairless explained that, as part of the project, he and his team worked up a scheme that entailed close liaison with the hospital’s Patient Safety co-ordinators. He said: “We sat down with Patient Flow manager, Melanie Cunningham, and set up meetings with all the clinical users, since as part of the work we knew we would have to isolate power to ITU, HDU, and other departments, while ensuring patient safety. We arranged workshops with the relevant Matrons, and discussed what we needed to do, why we needed to do it, and how long we needed the power off. We then asked the Matrons what they would need when we turned off power to their area or department, putting in place risk mitigation. We ran temporary cables across the roof to provide temporary power supplies, and undertook a lot of work to verify that circuits were correctly marked up.


“Getting everyone’s understanding of what we would be doing on a particular day entailed using our business continuity and emergency preparedness room, the Bewick Suite,” he continued. “The longest day we had – moving one set of cables from one board to another – was 16 hours. The cables and boards impacted affected HDU, ITU, and our Burns Unit – all our Critical Care areas. The biggest issue on that very long day was that the ground floor Costa Coffee outlet had no power, so we had to install a temporary supply. In all, we had 78 cable sets to move from one switchboard to another, but some


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