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Mt. Zion Medical Center Case Study Brief

changes,” Andritsakis said.

Challenge Engineering staff at the 100 bed hospital on the University of California-San Francisco campus, wanted more ‘intelligent’ paralleling control switchgear with expanded capabilities for its emergency power system. Solution Rather than replace the 20-year old gear, the hospital, one of the nation’s top 10 cancer research centers, decided to modernize it by replacing relay logic.

ASCO Power Services designed, installed and tested a new control system using micro-processor based digital controllers. ASCO assembled the control system then shipped one control ler at a time for installation on site. This ensured the hospital always had enough capacity to carry life safety, critical and other loads, such as MRI equipment. Wiring connection interfaces for engines and master controller were managed on site. Installation took about a month. “It went smoothly even though this kind of upgrade can be a diffi cult and cumbersome undertak ing,” said Yiorgos Andritsakis, the hospital’s chief engineer. “Like every job, there were hurdles to be overcome and everything fell into place.” ASCO and the hospital’s engineer ing staff stood by 24/7 in case of an emergency. The primary difference between the old and the new gear is bet ter load management. “Now, the system monitors every engine op erating parameter as well as load

“It can decide whether to drop an engine to optimize system opera tion, shed transfer switches for some reason if an engine is lost, or if the load increases, add an engine. “It knows if it needs to start shedding the lowest prior ity loads. It can make intelligent decisions to shed loads in stages, rather than in blocks,” he ex plained. ASCO Power Services also helps engineering staff maintain the system.

“I go home at night and sleep peacefully,” he said.

Yiorgos Andritsakis, chief engineer for Mt. Zion Medical Center at the University of California-San Fran cisco, said upgrading the paralleling control switchgear improved load management.

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