Mission Critical - Winter 2008 - (Page 52)

Backup Power continued With a self-sufficient emergency power system that exceeds the capabilities of most other hospitals, the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, NY, is the hub of Bassett Healthcare, which operates regional clinics as well. backup power has a fiscal benefit as well. Middleton estimates the loss of power for eight hours would amount to a revenue loss of $1,000,000. Bassett isn’t taking any chances. The default mode of the paralleling gear for their backup power system meets the requirements of the NFPA’s National Electrical Code (NEC), providing emergency power to loads that supply critical services for life safety plus the HVAC system and some other equipment — the typical hospital emergency power system. However, that is only the beginning for Bassett’s system, which ensures that all elevators will also keep running and then, five minutes after the beginning of the outage, ramps up two additional generators to restore full power to the hospital and 15 other buildings. In an operating room, for example, this can make a big difference. The NEC says only a certain percentage of electrical receptacles (outlets) in an operating room (OR) must be on emergency power, not all of them. “You can’t count on two hands the number of computerized devices in our cardiovascular OR,” says Middleton. So at Bassett, five minutes after a power loss, not just the receptacles prescribed by code, but all receptacles are live again. At that point, Bassett facilities are energy independent, generating all their own primary power. The system can back-feed and feed around any fault on the campus. But that’s not all. Another backup system, entirely separate and distinct, ensures a continuous power feed to Bassett’s data center, which is also on the Cooperstown campus. This system, which has its own redundancies, allows no power interruptions at all. These days, the loss of computer access to patient drug histories, digital radiology films, and other electronic records would be a serious setback for doctors, nurses, and ultimately patients. An advocate for the extra backup he brought about at Bassett, Middleton observes, “As health-care technology becomes more and more sophisticated, concurrent with the increased focus on expense control, the continuous delivery The need to build new data centers or expand existing sites will only continue to grow. of medical information is critical. A reliable power system really needs to be a bottom-line calculation. Unfortunately, most healthcare facilities have not realized this yet.” In the 1980s Middleton worked for the Carle Foundation Hospital in Illinois. When, as part of that hospital’s expansion program, management decided to consolidate and centralize their power distribution system and parallel their sources of emergency power, Middleton was involved in the selection process for the design, manufacture, and installation of the necessary switchgear. Before long, one company — Russelectric Inc. — stood out for both their products and service. Based in Hingham, MA, Russelectric designs, builds, 52 | Mission Critical Winter 2008

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Mission Critical - Winter 2008 Table of Contents Editorial: What Have We Been Doing? Cronin’s Workshop: Imagining the Perfect Data Center Power And Cooling Solution Digital Power: The Next Edge in Business Resiliency Zinc Whiskers: Keeping Up With The Green Movement Mission Critical Care: Shipping, Staging, and Installation Legal Perspectives: “A Reliable Energy Supply Is Key to Data Center Success” Continued Payback, Instant Protection Beyond the Nines The Green Information Technology Revolution Health Care Network Offers Glimpse of the Future of Backup Power High-Density Data Centers – Discuss, Design, Deploy High Performance Data Centers Call for Innovative Cooling Techniques More Data in the Data Center Five Considerations for Powering Data Center Racks New Products Industry News Events Classifieds Letters Ad Index Datacenter Wiki: wiki-Mission Critical

Mission Critical - Winter 2008

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