The project
Considered to be the most innovative hospital in South America, the Felix Bulnes Hospital in Santiago, Chile is a modern and technologically advanced healthcare facility providing emergency inpatient and outpatient care to a population of 1.2 million people.
Constructed in 2015 of environmentally friendly materials, energy-efficient architecture and anti-seismic technology, the modern hospital is located in one of the most medically underserved areas of Chile. It has 523 beds, covers 4.2 hectares, has 2,500 staff, 600 contractors and completes more than 180,000 outpatient consultations every year.
The challenge
For hospitals, having a continuous and reliable energy system is critical. All medical systems – including life-saving equipment such as incubators and anesthesia machines – rely on electricity for operation. If the electricity supply goes down, lives could be at risk. Given how important power supply is, the hospital needed a back-up power source through generators and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems to ensure continuity, along with flexible electrical substations that allow by-pass maneuvers and redundancy to ensure power supply at the most critical points.
Due to the size of the switchboards required for such a large-scale project, the principal challenge for ABB was to install space-saving back-up power protection at low cost and with great performance.
The solution
ABB worked with the Felix Bulnes Hospital’s electrical designers to install an innovative solution never before used in Chile the S750DR Selective Main Circuit-Breaker (SMCB), a highly reliable solution suitable for the protection of distribution circuits.
Capable of delivering an uninterrupted power supply and ensuring outstanding selectivity, the S750DR is the ideal choice for highly critical energy systems, as in the unlikely event of a fault occurring, only the circuit closest to the fault is affected, leaving the rest of the hospital’s power supply to run as normal. To add to this, the S750DR is 20 percent smaller than conventional case breakers – an important benefit where space is at a premium.
The S750DR also allows for circuit breakers to be directly mounted on to DIN rails, and ABB was able to optimize the installation by introducing switches, including all downstream products in the S200 series (miniature circuit breakers).
To complement the S750 and S200, ABB delivered a complete range of packaged solutions including the Emax 2, Tmax T and System Pro E Power. Both Emax 2 and Tmax T offer unique smart capabilities, constantly monitoring the status of the circuit breakers and all currents and sending this data to the cloud. This allows for predictive maintenance to anticipate problems before they happen, negating the need for scheduled maintenance.
The results
With its new back-up power protection solution in place, the hospital now has a reliable, complete and unique electrical installation, with total selectivity and continuity of service. The Emax 2 and Tmax T circuit breakers allow for the hospital’s facilities managers to be more proactive from a digital asset management perspective, enabling them to fault-find quicker and respond before failures occur.
In case of a short circuit, the S750DR reduces the energy passing through the installation by around 80 percent compared to conventional installations, leading to less stress across the entire circuit, less replacements and reducing potential downtime.
The hospital was able to achieve a 25 percent reduction in total footprint space used in the electrical rooms, taking up just 130m2 of space for 130 electrical panels and cabinets, thanks to the S750DR breaker.
Juan Yañez, Technical Promoter for ABB’s Electrification Business in Chile explains: “ABB has a strong track record working with hospitals to ensure continuous power supply. We understand how important this is, not only to the performance of the hospital, but to the lives and quality of care for its patients. We developed a comprehensive solution that, while it had a small footprint, was big on performance.”
To find out more about ABB’s comprehensive solutions for medical facilities download our latest Application Paper or Contact Us here.
