Emergency generator backup

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Hameedulla-Ekhlas

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Location
AFG
Can you be a little more clearer on the question:-?


It is hospital design work and contains also emergency circuits for special rooms and places. I have provided a emergency generator separate from normal active generators. Now I have been asked to provide one more emergency generator for back up.

I searched NEC could not find needed for back up generator for emergeny generator.
 

DetroitEE

Senior Member
Location
Detroit, MI
It is hospital design work and contains also emergency circuits for special rooms and places. I have provided a emergency generator separate from normal active generators. Now I have been asked to provide one more emergency generator for back up.

I searched NEC could not find needed for back up generator for emergeny generator.

The NEC requires 3 emergency branches for hospitals: Critical, Life Safety, and Equipment. Look at Article 517 for a description of what can be put on each branch.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "one more emergency generator for back up." Do you mean that emeregency system loads are too large to be served by one generator, so you're parallelling two generators for the needed KVA?
 

jim dungar

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Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
It sound like you have a normal (utility) power source to the hospital.
You have added a required 'emergency' source generator.

Now you are being asked to provide a backup generator to the required generator. This is not an NEC requirement, but it is not an uncommon customer request.

Will your back-up generator be fixed in place or portable?
 

charlie b

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Location
Lockport, IL
Occupation
Retired Electrical Engineer
One fundamental presumption is that the normal power source is going to be fairly reliable, and that the emergency power source will not often be called upon to function. Another fundamental presumption is that you will not have a simultaneous failure of the normal power source and the emergency power source. Indeed, there are testing and other requirements that are intended to minimize the probability of a failure of the emergency source at the one time you need it to be functional (i.e., when the normal source is lost). Therefore, there is no requirement that a second emergency source be available, just in case the normal source is lost and the first emergency source picks that moment to fail.

Although having a second backup generator is not an NEC requirement, nothing in the NEC would prohibit it either. If the owner wants to spend the money to obtain a second level of emergency power, they are welcome to do so.

For my part, I have seen it done in only one type of facility: a nuclear power generating plant. They have a requirement that they have to be able to safely shut down after an incident, without relying upon the normal utility power source, and with the presumed failure of one single component. Since the emergency generator is included in the list of "designed single failure" components, they always have at least two emergency generators.
 
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