Russs57
Senior Member
- Location
- Miami, Florida, USA
- Occupation
- Maintenance Engineer
I'm not one to know all the rules and codes. I need help on the "legal" (and practical) side of how to backup my paralleling switchgear while a new section is added.
We are talking about a hospital.
Board serves three 1,500 KW generators. One generator will carry the connected load (roughly 1,500 amps/3 ph/480 VAC). There aren't a lot of breakers in the board, no more than ten. Some of the ATS's served are quite far apart and distant from the paralleling switchgear.
The best I can see is camlock pigtails downstream of each breaker in the paralleling switchgear (assuming breakers are rated for reverse feeding). Then bring all of those cables down to a 2,000 amp panel near a portable generator and populate said panel with appropriate sized LSIG breakers. Next grab a start signal from an ATS in the same room as the paralleling switchgear. That would protect from a real power outage but not from a tripped breaker on the normal side of another ATS. Note that some normal power feeds to some ATS's come from a different POCO vault.
That is a lot of money and a fair amount of work. Honestly I don't know if doing all of that would be "good enough" in the eye's of the AHJ. I just can't come up with anything better that is feasible. Any words of advice would be appreciated.
We are talking about a hospital.
Board serves three 1,500 KW generators. One generator will carry the connected load (roughly 1,500 amps/3 ph/480 VAC). There aren't a lot of breakers in the board, no more than ten. Some of the ATS's served are quite far apart and distant from the paralleling switchgear.
The best I can see is camlock pigtails downstream of each breaker in the paralleling switchgear (assuming breakers are rated for reverse feeding). Then bring all of those cables down to a 2,000 amp panel near a portable generator and populate said panel with appropriate sized LSIG breakers. Next grab a start signal from an ATS in the same room as the paralleling switchgear. That would protect from a real power outage but not from a tripped breaker on the normal side of another ATS. Note that some normal power feeds to some ATS's come from a different POCO vault.
That is a lot of money and a fair amount of work. Honestly I don't know if doing all of that would be "good enough" in the eye's of the AHJ. I just can't come up with anything better that is feasible. Any words of advice would be appreciated.
