Froedtert North Hills Health Center

Lemberg works with several Froedtert locations, providing electrical, data and sign services. Hospitals like Froedtert need reliable power sources for the safety of their patients and their data.  Lemberg's electrical professionals are especially trained for the specific needs of the healthcare environment. At the Froedtert North Hills Health Center in Menomonee Falls, Lemberg's electrical team installed a standby power system that ensures continuous power for critical systems in case of an outage. 

In this case the team engineered multiple layers of power redundancy to protect the sensitive work of the Reproductive Medicine department as well as other departments within their buildings such as the Sleep Lab, 24/7 VICU Monitoring Department and the vaccine medical refrigeration system.

The Project: The team installed a priority system using an Automatic Transfer Switch and an Uninterrupted Power Supply (ATS/UPS), and modified two large existing generators to work in conjunction with the added ATS/UPS.  Often used in hospital settings, this type of system is complex and sophisticated and requires specific expertise.

In this project, Lemberg installed a new 480v feed to the UPS maintenance by-pass panel to feed the new UPS. A new transformer was also installed to provide 120v power to the medical equipment. To coordinate the system, upsized conduit and feeders for each of the existing generators were installed. Then, the team installed a new 6-pole ATS to feed two new distribution panels (DP/Priority 1 and DP/Priority 2). Those new panels back-fed the four existing automatic transfer switches located in two different buildings.

In this system, if the utility power fails, the generators provide back-up power. However, there is a 7-10 second delay in power during the change over to generator power. The new UPS provides an instant power bridge for the reproductive equipment until the generators take over. If one of the two generators should fail, the new 6-pole ATS will switch the loads over to the other generator and the DP/Priority 2 panel will drop off allowing the DP/Priority 1 panel the energy to power the sensitive equipment, uninterrupted. Should both generators fail, the new UPS will provide 4-8 hours of power to the equipment, allowing key Froedtert medical personnel to be dispatched to take appropriate action within their departments. 

One of the challenges in this electrical project was that the entire project was done while the buildings were occupied and the medical departments operational. This project required detailed planning and coordination by the Lemberg electrical team, including visual representation of power disruptions, IWPs, MOPs, records of line items impacted, a shutdown schedule, and many meetings. Power interruptions were staggered, during which times all critical equipment in both affected buildings were supported by temporary power.  Rigorous testing and verification were also performed prior to commissioning.

Project Features:

• Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS)
• Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)
• Generator
• Emergency Service
• Redundant Service
• Testing
• Commissioning