Critical Power - Hospitals and Data Centers - Consulting - Specifying Engineer

1/10/2019 Critical power: hospitals and data centers - Consulting - Specifying Engineer
Critical power: hospitals and data centers

Electrical engineers must consider many factors when designing backup, standby, and
emergency power systems. Speci c requirements for emergency power vary based on
the mission critical facility, such as a hospital or data center.
BY FREDDY PADILLA, PE, ATD, PAGE, AUSTIN, TEXAS MARCH 19, 2018
Learning objectives:
Learn about system availability and importance of redundancy for building reliable mission critical
facilities.
Compare the electrical and power needs of hospitals and data centers.
Safety, maintainability, code compliance, and economics play crucial roles in determining the topology of an
emergency system for a critical facility. Speci c requirements for emergency power vary based on the
mission critical facility. Hospitals and data centers have the one of the highest power availability
requirements in the industry to ensure minimal to no interruption of service in critical areas.
Availably is the ability of an item—under combined aspects of

its reliability, maintainability, and maintenance support—to
perform its required function at a stated instant of time or over
a stated period of time. Reliability is the ability of a component
or system to perform required functions under stated
conditions for a stated period of time.
As building typologies, hospitals and data centers are

inherently distinct, one being largely unoccupied and the other
providing life-safety services to inpatients. The electrical
systems of hospitals appear to be trending more toward the
robust designs found in data centers.
Data centers house computer equipment used to process, analyze, and store electronic data. Many
businesses today rely on services performed within data centers to maintain their own functionality,
including day-to-day IT/communication infrastructure. The need for electronic data is growing while the need
to process or access this data at all times also is increasing. Keeping these buildings available 7×24 is a
necessity, not a luxury.
Hospitals, on the other hand, are occupied, public buildings that provide critical care, and depending on the
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type provided, these facilities must be available 7×24.
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more information.
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emergency, standby generators primarily for life-safety and essential reasons, they are not as stringent as
the standard practices for redundancy in data centers.
Maintaining demand for power
Demand for uninterruptable reliable power in data centers is now the norm. As most of these facilities are
not regulated by the government, their electrical system topology is exible and innovative. Guidelines, such
as Uptime Institute and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), are used industrywide.
Hospitals are increasingly requiring redundancy in their electrical systems, especially as the use of
computers and electronic equipment to save lives and improve the patient experience has become
integrated into critical care. As technology evolves, the number and complexities of hospital systems
requiring uninterruptable power steadily increases.
Many hospitals are growing their budgets to include support of

electrical reliability and availability of their systems. Examples
of hospital equipment requiring continuous power include
operating room machinery, life support, nurse calls, blood
storage, re alarm, mass noti cation, etc.
Comparing hospitals, data centers
Hospitals and data centers have different type of requirements

because they are serving distinct types of loads. The
difference in their requirements in uence their electrical
topologies as described below:
Data centers predominately use dual-corded equipment

for critical loads, while hospitals rely on single-corded
systems.
Data centers use centralized uninterruptable power supply (UPS) systems for critical loads, while
hospitals have preferred to use internal equipment UPS to allow equipment to be transferred from
room to room. We are starting to see the uses of centralized UPS systems, especially for operating
room lighting applications. Mini-data centers also are part of hospital medical record systems that
employ centralized UPS systems.
Data centers are often required to operate 7×24 without critical load scheduled outages. Critical load is
all electrical loads required to perform the intended task. Most hospitals occasionally can be shut
down for repairs or maintenance, but this trend is changing because electrical system uptime is
increasingly considered an expected level of service in hospitals.
Hospital start-up sequences for larger generator plants are usually faster due to critical and life-safety
time requirements.
Hospital breaker coordination is required by code, while the data center industry considers it good
practice. Data centers frequently have had better and more up-to-date documentation on breaker
coordination, but more hospitals are now keeping track of this information, too.
Hospitals typically use automatic transfer switches to separate different branches; data centers tend
to use electrically operated breakers in a “main-tie-tie-main” con guration.
Next-generation electrical infrastructures

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The 7×24 electrical distribution systems are becoming

essential to the day-to-day operations of all types of buildings.
The more solutions engineers design, the greater the demand
—and need—grows for electrical systems to power these
solutions, especially in data centers and hospitals. The current
generation of electrical infrastructures has created a high level
of expectations among owners and users, who have an
increasingly harder time tolerating gaps in high-quality service
for these types of buildings.
Reliability and availability for electrical distribution systems will

remain on the front line for electrical designers, and these
requirements are here to stay. These qualities not only
determine the service that a building provides, but also have a
great impact on the safety of those who operate these facilities. Additionally, increasing focus on
environmental impact and energy consumption will continue to challenge designers during their innovation
of new ways to provide a high level of reliability and availability. In the future, next-generation hospital
electrical distribution systems will more closely resemble those of data centers.
Freddy Padilla is a principal and the MEP engineering director at Page. He is a member of the Consulting-
Specifying Engineer editorial advisory board.
Related Articles
Designing backup, standby, and emergency power for high-performance buildings
Data center design considerations
Adopting NFPA 101 in health care buildings
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1/10/2019 Critical power: hospitals and data centers - Consulting - Specifying Engineer

Critical power: hospitals and data centers

Availably is the ability of an item—under combined aspects of

As building typologies, hospitals and data centers are

Maintaining demand for power

Many hospitals are growing their budgets to include support of

Comparing hospitals, data centers

Hospitals and data centers have different type of requirements

Data centers predominately use dual-corded equipment

Next-generation electrical infrastructures

The 7×24 electrical distribution systems are becoming

Reliability and availability for electrical distribution systems will

Codes and Standards

Fire, Life Safety

Downers Grove, IL 60515

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