Medical center

In order to provide high quality healthcare services and support critical life safety equipment, all healthcare facilities need to be prepared to withstand temporary and extended power outages; as even extremely short power outages of a few seconds can compromise the health of individual patients and cause costly damage to sensitive medial equipment and IT systems.

When a major medical center in the Midwestern United States needed to modernize standby and emergency power system equipment that was quickly reaching end of life, it was in need of a modern solution that would not only support critical power reliability, but also simplify routine maintenance without sacrificing uptime. 

To modernize its emergency and standby power systems, the medical center sought to replace 42 aging automatic transfer switches with bypass isolation automatic transfer switches. For simplified maintenance and improved uptime, the bypass isolation ATS is a recent advancement that provides dual switching functionality and redundancy for critical applications. The primary switching mechanism (or automatic transfer switch) handles the day-to-day distribution of electrical power to the load, while the secondary switching mechanism (or automatic bypass) serves as a backup or redundant device.

Compared to the facility’s legacy ATS solutions, which required maintenance personnel to work on live equipment or schedule system downtime to de-energize equipment, the new technology would allow service personnel to bypass power around the automatic transfer switch through the automatic bypass to ensure that critical loads remain powered without interruption. When in the automatic bypass mode of operation, the control system would continue to monitor the normal power source and automatically initiate a transfer to the alternate source should the normal source fail.

In addition to requiring a larger footprint, each of the new bypass isolation transfer switches and three legacy transfer switch models being retained would need to communicate via existing network wiring with human machine interface (HMI) remote annunciator controllers located at one of two generator stations to facilitate remote management.

The medical center issued a RFP in 2015 in order to identify a partner capable of completing the ATS system modernization. A family owned and operated electrical contractor was selected to support the project with a proposal incorporating Eaton’s bypass isolation ATS technology, HMI remote annunciator controller and communication solution. 

The contractor had a successful history of projects with the healthcare facility, as well as a long history of collaboration with Eaton for other healthcare and commercial facilities, which positioned both companies to help the medical center meet its project goals.

The customized solution developed by the electrical contractor and Eaton addressed the complexities of replacing a large number of legacy ATS’s with bypass isolation ATS’s in locations with limited floor space.

Equipped with dual ATS technology, the ATS and automatic bypass switch were capable of initiating a transfer to emergency power if necessary. This helped the medical center maximize operational uptime and eliminated the need for a technician to be physically present to complete a manual transfer of the bypass switch during routine ATS maintenance. The dual ATS technology also increased reliability by providing redundancy in the form of an automatic bypass should the ATS fail. 

For simplified maintenance and improved serviceability, Eaton’s bypass isolation ATS’s included compartmentalized, draw-out construction with safety interlocks. This feature provides enhanced worker safety and allows medical center service personal to withdraw and maintain the ATS while mitigating shock hazard.  

Additionally, the design included Eaton’s HMi Remote Annunciator Controller (RAC) to serve as a powerful management interface with each of the ATS’s – displaying real-time status and alarm history information, analyzing power quality data, programing system setpoints, and initiating engine tests. This provided facility management with the ability to remotely monitor and control all transfer switches from two centralized locations.

Eaton also provided technical support for the project through its product team and manufacturing facility in North Carolina, which created system design and communications architecture to help the medical center ensure compliance with legacy equipment. In collaboration with the electrical contractor, Eaton worked to minimize cost and expedite project delivery by leveraging existing cabling for Ethernet and serial communications.

Because legacy ATS solutions either require maintenance personnel to work on live equipment or require downtime to turn equipment off, the critical need for uptime often results in the specification of bypass isolation ATS for use in new construction or retrofit projects. 

For the medical center, a modernized system comprised of bypass isolation ATS’s with dual ATS technology provided increased reliability through redundancy and the ability to isolate the primary switching mechanism from the power source(s) to facilitate regular maintenance, inspection and testing as required by codes such as NFPA 110.

Ultimately, the customized solution comprised of Bypass Isolation ATS’s, HMi RAC’s and communication architecture developed by the contractor and Eaton is enabling the medical center to reap the following benefits: