ABB has provided reliable and energy-efficient solutions to safeguard the distribution of power and ensure uptime at a new hospital under construction in Epinal in north-eastern France. Located just across the street from the existing hospital, Émile Durkheim, the more spacious new hospital, targeted to open in January 2021, will be 240 m long and six floors high.
Planning the electrical network for the new hospital came with a myriad of challenges and the utmost priority was clear; to ensure uninterrupted power supply at all times. "For this project, we were looking for total security, with a system that would provide emergency back-up automatically if the main network failed” said Michel Gardeux, the technical director at the Émile Durkheim hospital. “The new hospital also had to be as independent as possible, with several 2200 kVA generators, each of them able to power all the hospital's installations on its own."
At an early stage of the project, ABB introduced UniSec medium-voltage switchgear and the LC1000 solution as a perfect fit to meet the end user’s stringent requirements. The ABB Ability™ Loop Control for distribution networks, LC1000 UniSec solution, has been designed specifically for critical applications, where blackouts would cause severe problems and considerable costs, such as in hospitals, where the health and safety of patients could be jeopardized without continual power.
In the event of a fault in the distribution network, the solution restores power almost instantaneously. When using motor-operated switch-disconnectors in the medium-voltage switchgear in ring networks, the solution detects and isolates a fault in less than one second. This is further reduced to less than 0.5 seconds if the switchgear is equipped with a circuit breaker and current and voltage combi sensors, as is the UniSec switchgear at the hospital in Epinal.
The LC1000 UniSec solution utilizes ABB’s advanced protection and control technology in the Relion® relays, which are integrated into the switchgear. These smart devices use the power of GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event) communication of the
IEC 61850 protocol to detect and instantly message one another to eliminate faults in the network.
UniSec is an air-insulated switchgear for secondary distribution. With this type of switchgear, the use of space is optimized as there are panels available that are only 500mm in width, compared to the conventional 750mm, which offer the same performance. The modular switchgear can also be scaled easily to accommodate future expansion needs.
"These solutions will evolve in parallel with the hospital. The system that has been put in place leaves us with a significant reserve of resources that allows us to accompany any extensions to the new building without major modifications" concluded Michel Gardeux.
“The LC1000 UniSec solution meets the most stringent reliability and post-fault recovery requirements, with its ability to reconfigure the network very quickly after a fault occurs, resulting in improved reliability of the power system” said Marco Tellarini, product group Managing Director in Distribution Solutions. "Our flexible, smart solutions ensure continuous power supply to support our critical power customers and allow for easy adaptation and scalability as requirements grow."
