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A Modular Power System Designed to Weather Any Storm
2/19/2019 12:00:00 AM
“Securing a generator was always a priority.” Glen Pawlowski, chief executive officer for CERTUS Senior Living wanted to make sure his new 43,000-square-foot memory care facility in Orange City was secure at all times. “In the event of a hurricane or storm, we want to shelter in place. The last thing we want to do is evacuate and cause undue stress to our residents. In the past, storms have knocked out power for days and we need to be able to provide services requiring power continuously.”
Designing an Assisted Living Facility (ALF) in Florida requires extra considerations to keep residents safe. In the wake of Hurricane Irma, more than a dozen senior citizens lost their lives in a nursing home when the power was knocked out and temperatures soared to nearly 100 degrees. Following the deaths, Florida Gov. Rick Scott directed the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and the Florida Department of Elder Affairs to issue emergency rules to keep Floridians safe in health care facilities during emergencies. In the case of an emergency, all facilities must have ample resources, including a generator, for climate control.
When designing their facility, the CERTUS team wanted a unique solution to keep their residents safe. They teamed up with electrical contractor Boys Electrical, general contractor Certified General Contractors, and engineering firm KEM, to help determine what generator would best compliment the company goal to create the highest quality living experience possible. CERTUS needed a highly reliable system that could handle any kind of weather.
The company originally wanted a diesel generator with 72-hours worth of fuel to provide backup power to the facility. However, Pawlowski learned they would need to upgrade to a 96-hour fuel storage tank.
“I was skeptical of the amount of diesel fuel that we had to store and the safety and maintenance that is involved with that,” Pawlowski said, “but then Generac Industrial Power shared their knowledge about natural gas.”
Jeff Gleason, national account manager, Generac Industrial Power, helped explain the benefits of natural gas. “The original design by the team specified a diesel unit from a different company,” Gleason said. “After speaking with CERTUS and going through several options, they were sold on the ease of use of natural gas.”
CERTUS does not have the staff on hand to maintain a diesel generator. “There is a lot of maintenance associated with caring for diesel fuel,” Gleason said. “Natural gas eliminates those challenges. A fuel source that is constantly available with little maintenance is extremely important when a company does not have staff on site to tend to the generators.”
In the past when storms hit Florida, it was challenging to get diesel fuel to locations that needed it, but the gas supply remained constant through every storm. For that reason, the Authorities Having Jurisdiction in Florida have deemed natural gas a resilient fuel supply.
After considering the needs of the customer, Gleason recommended a Generac 390 kW Modular Power System (MPS). The MPS solution consists of three paralleled 130 kW natural gas generators. The generators provide backup power to the entire building, so if the power goes out, all functions throughout the building will remain operational. Life safety systems are highly important to an ALF; Generac is able to guarantee life safety loads within ten seconds.
“By getting three smaller units in a series, we were guaranteed to have uninterrupted service,” said Pawlowski. Even in the event two units are offline for maintenance, life safety systems will still be supported. The design team found another benefit by choosing Generac’s digitally integrated paralleled system – the Generac MPS does not require expensive, space consuming and complex paralleling switchgear as each gen-set features onboard paralleling capabilities.
Pawlowski said he switched to Generac because of their innovative solutions and their excellent customer service: “Jeff was extremely helpful. The emergency power solution is something we can depend on. Our Generac generators do their job and we do not have to think about it. That is all I could have hoped for in a solution.”
Generac and CERTUS will continue to work together in the future because of the support they have received. “We have two sites operational, one currently under construction and eight more facilities on the way with every one of them having a Generac generator,” said Pawlowski. “We know what to expect. The communication is excellent and nothing is a surprise. We are happy to keep working with Generac because of that relationship.”
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