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Advance Design Consultants was engaged by the VA to provide Emergency Power Measurement Evaluation and Design Services for Building 100 in Palo Alto. When this facility was planned, the electrical distribution system for main hospital building 100 was designed for normal power served from electrical utility, and life safety, critical and equipment loads served from emergency power. Under the revised VA design guidelines, the building had recently been re-classified as a mission critical facility and thus needed to comply with new and heightened electrical guidelines for power services to the building. ADC was tasked with preparation of a study with three options, and from the chosen option, SD, DD, CD and construction support for full design development documents consisting of updated drawings, specifications, and supporting documents and calculations meeting the approved scope and space program.

ADC’s re-design of building 100, 101, 102 and 103’s normal electrical distribution system needed to comply with guidelines for a mission critical facility application. First ADC determined whether the existing generator capacity was adequate to handle the additional loads of the switchboards necessary for the increased power requirements. From there, ADC’s approach was to develop three independent options for the re-design of the electrical distribution system, with proposed sizes and locations for new distribution components, design of connections from load to power source, locations of proposed equipment, and controls design for optimized manageability of the system.

With design review milestones incorporated into the schedule at 35%, 65%, 95% and 100%, the three proposed designs were created in accordance with A/E design submission requirements and vetted among the team throughout the design process. From those three options, one prevailed, and ADC took the initial schematic from concept through design development and on to completed construction documents, preparing all the necessary specifications and supporting documents needed for the construction phase.

Project Scope
Advance Design Consultants provided comprehensive evaluation of the current emergency power system serving the building to create an upgraded system that complies with the latest VA Mission Critical Facility requirements and electrical guidelines for power services to the building.

Challenges
Under VA Mission Critical requirements, the entire building loads including required emergency loads would need to be served from an emergency stand-by power source.

Solution
ADC determined that the existing generator did not have enough capacity to handle the current and future required loads, so a new generator system was designed that would efficiently provide for the client’s demand needs.

Achievements
On time, on budget, value engineering