ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
The new electrical energy centre (EEC) and generator yard will be located on an elevated greenfield site away from existing structures to mitigate risks such as flood, fire, and seismic concerns. The author says that the benefits of the new EEC will be ‘substantial, providing many beyond essential power distribution and natural disaster mitigation’.
space, equipment connection locations, and conduits have been made for the installation of additional generators to support future load growth while maintaining N+1 redundancy. 12.5 kV was selected for the generation and site distribution voltage to reduce voltage drop issues and ensure commercial availability of equipment.
Replacement of 40-year-old switchgear 12.5kV feeders and spare conduits will be routed underground from the EEC to the new purpose-built D&T electrical room located adjacent to the D&T building on Level 2, above the potential flood level. Three transformers will further step the power down to 600 V for connection to the new D&T vital, delayed vital, and conditional vital switchboards. These switchboards will reconnect to the existing D&T distribution temporarily. Reconnection of the D&T services has been designed to replace the 40-year-old main distribution switchgear and as many of the existing feeders as practicable. The benefits of the new EEC are
substantial, providing many beyond essential power distribution and natural disaster mitigation. The facility will offer the ability to support all existing normal loads in the hospital, with the conditional branch power for increased flexibility in operations during extended utility outages. The regional laundry facility on site will also be reconfigured to connect to the new EEC conditional distribution, thereby improving service reliability during power outages, and allowing for future electrification of this facility. It is these combined crucial features that
are required for health campuses like VGH to continue to grow and change to meet patient demands. Although the process of replacing the main distribution and essential power equipment in an active hospital can be immensely disruptive and introduce unnecessary risk, this project presents a unique opportunity for Island Health. By combining the necessary
replacement of end-of-life equipment with the desired upgrade for future site needs, while optimising project cost and minimising disruptions to operations due to the parallel buildout implementation plan, Island Health will be able to achieve incredibly successful results.
A phased programme To implement this, Phase 1 will include construction of the new EEC building, the new utility services, the generation plant, and associated commissioning, while Phase 2 will include construction and commissioning of the new D&T electrical room, along with the duct bank connecting it to the EEC. Phases 3 and 4 are where the benefit of building a new EEC in a separate location, instead of in situ, play a large role in downtime reduction. In Phase 3, essential loads will be supplied from the current generation plant, while the main service supply is migrated from the existing utility service to the new D&T distribution, thereby temporarily supplying the entire site from the new EEC via the old distribution equipment. The existing generators and automatic transfer switches can then be decommissioned to make room for Phase 4 – load migration. During the load migration phase, new
feeders will be installed from the new D&T distribution to the existing sub-electrical rooms prior to numerous controlled outages. Each load will be migrated to a new breaker in the corresponding 600 V power branch in the new D&T electrical room. This phase will require meticulous planning and coordination with facility maintenance and operations staff, as well as clinicians. The resulting power interruptions will be short in duration, and will only impact small areas at a time, making the disruption much easier to manage. Once all loads have been migrated,
the remaining 40-year-old distribution equipment can be removed, and the existing main electrical room on Level 1 can be repurposed. The new EEC project is
currently in the design development stage, and will proceed to contract documents pending funding approvals.
n Acknowledgment
This article, titled, ‘An electrifying opportunity’ / ‘Une opportunité électrisante’, was originally published in the Summer 2023 issue of Canadian Healthcare Facilities, the official journal of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES). HEJ would like to thank the author, CHES, and the magazine’s publisher, MediaEdge, for allowing its reproduction in slightly edited form here.
Lisanne Naeth
Lisanne Naeth, P.Eng, is a senior electrical engineer at AES
Engineering, based at the company’s Victoria office in British Columbia. She specialises in healthcare facilities, and is the lead electrical engineer for the Victoria General Hospital electrical energy centre project. AES Engineering is ‘a dedicated team of electrical engineers, lighting designers, artists, and specialists focused on designing integrated power, lighting, and technology systems for buildings and infrastructure’, with offices in British Columbia and Alberta in Canada.
May 2024 Health Estate Journal 31
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