World-Gen Nov/Dec 2018

WORLD-GENERATION NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 15 PERSPECTIVE In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005, the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) initiated a major program to upgrade emergency/ backup power systems at VA hospitals in hurricane zones. James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, located in Tampa, Florida, com- pleted a major power plant renovation as part of the national upgrade. The $47 mil- lion renovation to the power plant includes a backup system capable of covering all electrical loads for 120 hours (without refu- eling) in an event of an outage. Included in the upgrade was a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system from Russelectric. Haley Hospital awarded the bid for the SCADA system to Russelectric, based in Hingham, Massachusetts, which provided power control switchgear, transfer switch- es, and SCADA for the emergency backup system. VA UPGRADES EMERGENCY SYSTEM IN RESPONSE TO HURRICANE KATRINA James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, a teaching hospital affiliated with the adja- cent University of South Florida College of Medicine, provides a full range of patient services with state-of-the-art technology and research. Haley is the busiest of four national VA polytrauma facilities. It has 415 beds, plus another 118 beds in an onsite long-term care and rehabilitation facility. The system also includes four outpatient clinics serving a four-county area. As part of the national emergency/ backup power system upgrade, Haley Hospital completed a major power plant renovation. One of the key project goals was to ensure continuous air conditioning as well as operation of life-safety and other critical equipment. <image008.png> The hospital’s former backup power system included nine on-site generators, but could still only cover life-safety loads (45 percent of the total load) in the event of a utility outage. According to Haley’s elec- trical shop supervisor Bill Hagen, the old system resulted in major headaches, espe- cially its dynamic matrix control. “We had nothing but problems with it,” he recalls. “We never got it to work in parallel. It couldn’t even generate a monthly testing report.” In contrast, the new backup system covers all electrical loads for 120 hours without refueling. It handles every load for 9 buildings, 15 trailers that make up an on- campus clinic, and a parking garage – with just 7 generators. Each of the new 13,200- VAC Caterpillar diesel generators produces 2,200 kilowatts (kW) of power. Another improvement is the hospital’s renovated fuel system. The former system had a capacity of 22,000 gallons, and the storage tanks were spread out over several locations. The new tank farm has four 12,000-gallon tanks. With another 6,000-gal- lon tank under each generator, the system now has a total capacity of 90,000 gallons. NEW SCADA SYSTEM The system includes a state-of-the-art SCADA system, which features software and screen displays customized by Russelectric for the hospital’s site-specific needs. It provides interactive monitoring, real-time and historical trending, distribut- ed networking, alarm management, and comprehensive reports around the clock for every detail of the entire power system, not just for the backup components. In addition to monitoring power quality, the SCADA system includes continuous monitoring of fuel consumption by each generator and the level of fuel in every tank. With SCADA, an operator can easily monitor and control a facility’s entire power system using full-color “point and click” interactive computer-screen displays at the system console. For example, the operator can access and change the system’s PLC setpoints, display any of the analog or digital readouts on switchgear front panels, run a system test, or view the alarm history. A dynamic one-line diagram display uses color to indi- cate the status of the entire power system, including the positions of all power switch- ing devices. Operating parameters are dis- played and updated in real time; flashing lights on the switchgear annunciator panel also flash on the SCADA screen. Event log- ging, alarm locking, and help screens are standard. The SCADA is so sensitive that it detects and explains even the slightest anomaly, including those in the utility feeds,” says Byron Taylor, the hospital’s lead power plant operator. “A number of times we’ve called Tampa Electric Company (TECO) because we saw some- thing happening, and they had no idea they even had a problem yet! The stuff the sys- tem does is phenomenal. It gives us more data than we ever need for an average day, but it’s tremendous that we have it when we do need it.” REQUIRED SYSTEMTESTING To meet state and federal regulations, backup generators must be tested every month. Thanks to the new system’s capabil- ity for closed-transition transfer, the tests no longer require power interruptions that interfere with hospital loads. The system allows operators to carry out the tests in two different ways. They can parallel the output of all seven genera- tors to the utility feed, or they can test one generator at a time, up to its full output, using a special 2-megawatt (MW) load bank that has an independent control panel. Testing can be initiated manually or through SCADA. “It’s so much easier now,” says Hagen. “We’ll never again have to pay a testing firm to come out and test an engine to make sure it meets all the requirements.” Unlike most hospitals, Haley has the luxu- ry of four utility feeds. On a normal day, it draws from two of these (primary) feeds. This means that, except for testing, Haley does not have to start its generators until it loses three or more utility feeds. POWERING FLORIDA VA HOSPITAL BY STEPHEN MCQUAID (continued page 22)