The Electrical Layout of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The electrical load requirement of the existing Royal Lancaster Infirmary is in the high voltage range. The maximum electrical load demand of the existing sites peaks at around 875 KVA. According to the guidelines of the management policy of the Health Technical Memorandum 2011 (1992), this electrical load requirement is being satisfied by two 500 amperes, 11 VK high tension supplies running in parallel. The incoming 11KV is taken to an incoming breaker through an RMG from the incoming breaker, the 11 VK supply is passed on to the group coil breaker. From the group coil breaker, it gets split into four transformers for supply boost up. There are four high tension breakers connecting the group coil breakers to the four transformers. To satisfy the load demand, two transformers of 500 KVA and two transformers of 315 KVA are used. The output of the transformers is in the range of 433 KVA and they feed the low tension ( LT) feedings. This LT feeding ends at the main switch box of the electrical control room.

The electrical wiring has been configured such that the existing buildings get their electrical supply from a standby generator when there is a supply failure. The switch over to the standby generator system is at present manual in operation. Among the existing buildings, most of the electrical consumption is due to the demand in the medical unit which comprises the blood storage unit, the coronary care unit, and the wards. These sections of the hospital demand a critical supply of electrical power. The medical unit encompasses the plant rooms on the roof and the basement. The other units like the women’s unit, the wards, the pharmacy, the pathology unit, and the kitchen cum restaurant also consume considerable power.

The wiring layout does not split the essential and critical sections of the electrical requirement from that of the nonessential sections. Hence at present, the generator load is the same as the entire site load. The generator that is operational at present is a single generator that has a capacity of 530 VK at around 750 amps. This setup is already highly loaded and the possibility of additional load is less. Also, the existing generator is a class 2 type and is capable of handling only 50% of the rated capacity. To manage this, there are additional control systems that shed the load of noncritical systems.

1.2. The current problem in electrical backup:

The electrical requirement of the existing building as discussed earlier is being satisfied by a single generator. In this context, the proposal for extending two more phases of the hospital building has led to an additional electrical load. The proposed new building phases include the phase 3 building called the centenary building and the phase 4 building which is a new extension of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary site. The centenary building encompasses many blocks. The various blocks include the accident and emergency unit, radiology unit, pediatric unit, and the HSDU unit. These major units are located on the ground floor of the centenary building. ...Download file to see next pages Read More