Emergency Operations Center Generator

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hbendillo

Senior Member
Location
South carolina
Our firm is providing electrical engineering services for design of a county office building which contains many of the county offices including an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The building is single story therefore no elevators and there is no fire pump. We are designing a standby power system for the EOC and I am trying to get my head around classifying the loads for the operation. I have read many threads concerning Articles 700, 701 and 702 but there is one point that I want to clarify. I am classifying the loads roughly as follows:

Article 700 Loads - Emergency and exit lighting, fire alarm and possibly communications systems.

Article 701 Loads - All other loads required for the EOC to perform its function.

Part of my interpretation of Article 700 loads is this: Article 700 loads pertain to life safety and health hazards only to the building occupants. It has nothing to do with the function even if it is for some kind of emergency services.

Is this interpretation correct?

One of our strategies, to avoid having to have two transfer switches and separate distribution, is to provide the required battery back up for all of the Article 700 loads in the building including the EOC. The Standby Power System is dedicated only to the EOC.
 
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texie

Senior Member
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
Occupation
Electrician, Contractor, Inspector
hbendillo said:
Our firm is providing electrical engineering services for design of a county office building which contains many of the county offices including an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The building is single story therefore no elevators and there is no fire pump. We are designing a standby power system for the EOC and I am trying to get my head around classifying the loads for the operation. I have read many threads concerning Articles 700, 701 and 702 but there is one point that I want to clarify. I am classifying the loads roughly as follows:

Article 700 Loads - Emergency and exit lighting, fire alarm and possibly communications systems.

Article 701 Loads - All other loads required for the EOC to perform its function.

Part of my interpretation of Article 700 loads is this: Article 700 loads pertain to life safety and health hazards only to the building occupants. It has nothing to do with the function even if it is for some kind of emergency services.

Is this interpretation correct?

One of our strategies, to avoid having to have two transfer switches and separate distribution, is to provide the required battery back up for all of the Article 700 loads in the building including the EOC. The Standby Power System is dedicated only to the EOC.
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I would wonder if COPS, Art 708 would apply to this facility. But I would think that the AHJ would have to make this determination.
 
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hbendillo

Senior Member
Location
South carolina
I too have had little or no experience with Critical Operations Centers and Article 708. Thanks for pointing that out for me. So now I have to get them to confirm whether it is a COPS and then sort things out from there. They sent an E-mail stating that they are not going to consider the operations as essential services but I am trying to write a letter to get them to tell me what that means. They want emergency power for the Emergency Management Department but why if it is not essential at some level?
 
T

texie

Senior Member
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
Occupation
Electrician, Contractor, Inspector
hbendillo said:
I too have had little or no experience with Critical Operations Centers and Article 708. Thanks for pointing that out for me. So now I have to get them to confirm whether it is a COPS and then sort things out from there. They sent an E-mail stating that they are not going to consider the operations as essential services but I am trying to write a letter to get them to tell me what that means. They want emergency power for the Emergency Management Department but why if it is not essential at some level?
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I would agree. I find that most of these types of projects involve money from other sources such as state and federal agencies that often come with requirements for certain design requirements.
 
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hbendillo

Senior Member
Location
South carolina
So, considering Article 708, it seems to me, all Article 700 and 701 loads are those emergency and legally required loads for the building in question and the safety of the occupants of the building. Articles 700 and 701 do not extend to purposes of life safety beyond the building itself.
 
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hbendillo

Senior Member
Location
South carolina
mgookin said:
When you say "they sent me an e-mail" saying this EOC is not an Essential Facility, who is "they"?
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The Architect sent me an E-mail stating the county administrator told him that it was not going to be considered an "Essential Facility". That is not good enough for me. I am writing a letter to the county administrator asking him to confirm that it is not an "Essential Facility". More specifically I asked for him to confirm that the design of the standby power system does not fall under Article 708 for a Critical Operations Power System.
 
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GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
Catch 22? If the only failure is power to that building, then there is no emergency and the EOC is not necessary at all, right?
Let's not worry about what happens when an emergency causes the power to be lost since that will be a rare occurrence.
Heck, under that assumption why bother with an EOC in the first place?

Tapatalk!
 
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