PureWave UPS™ System is Ideal Solution for Medical Testing Facility.

Background

ARUP Laboratories Incorporated and its 1200+ employees are focused on providing specialty test services to hospitals and major commercial laboratories. Based in Salt Lake City, ARUP Labs is an industry leader utilizing over $300 million dollars worth of precision electronic equipment to perform in excess of 13,000 clinical tests per day. A large part of the value ARUP offers to customers is in their speed of service. Expediting test results to their customers often translates into shorter patient hospital stays and lower medical expenses.

The Problem

The service provided by ARUP Labs is very dependent on the uptime of their equipment. Due to the sensitive nature of the equipment required, a brief power outage or drop in utility voltage can have disastrous affects. Voltage problems can cause equipment to be damaged, cause software to reset, invalidate in-process tests and in severe cases, destroy customer samples. As Pat Moore, ARUP Lab’s facilities manager explains “In the past, power problems have caused both equipment degradation and sample loss . . . ARUP is a very customer-orientated company and asking customers to go through the cost and inconvenience of acquiring additional material is not an option that is looked on favorably.” The testing facilities run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so eliminating downtime is critical as schedule deviations and lost production cannot be recovered easily.

While ARUP Labs had experienced their share of loses due to voltage sags, brief power outages, and equipment damage these were not the only factors considered when they decided to act on their power quality (PQ) problems. ARUP Lab’s management was also watching the situation on the West Coast unfold with its rolling blackouts and numerous disturbances. Utah is not currently experiencing these types of problems, but management decided that it would be prudent to plan for the future by adapting a more proactive PQ strategy. The general feeling was that PQ problems were more likely to grow worse in the future rather than get better. Taking several preventive steps now would lead to big payoffs down the road in the areas of production and customer service.

Actions Taken

Once ARUP decided that something needed to be done, they turned to both Utah Power & Light and the consulting firm of JSH Engineering for assistance. UP&L showed interest in the project and agreed to pay for a study that would review the utility/generator interconnect system. JSH had previous experience specifying PQ equipment and was already in the process of designing the electrical system for the laboratory expansion. Joe Hancock of JSH showed an immediate interest in the PureWave system, stating that it “ . . . offered many features that were previously not available in the market . . . outdoor construction and true maintenance-free batteries give it a definite advantage . . .”.

Several other options were considered to solve the existing problems and provide protection against future threats. One option was to install numerous conventional small un-interruptible power supplies (UPS) at various locations around the lab in a configuration to protect all the equipment. This option proved to be prohibitive from both cost and logistical standpoints. The high load requirements would have required a large number of individual UPS units, which would have required complicated wire routing in addition to wasting a large amount of valuable floor space.

The Solution

After reviewing several options and consulting with UP&L and JSH Engineering, ARUP Lab’s facility managers decided that an S&C PureWave UPS™ System would be the best solution. A single 625kVA UPS will be installed outdoors, protecting the main low voltage electrical source that feeds all of the critical loads. No indoor space will need to be sacrificed and no complex wiring will need to be considered for the UPS system.

On-line diagram.

The PureWave UPS reacts quickly to power disturbances and can normally transfer from the utility to battery power in 2 to 4 milliseconds — fast enough to protect the lab equipment from malfunction or damage. The UPS will provide enough energy for 30 seconds of backup power at full load and 60 seconds at half load. This will be adequate to protect against over 99% of disturbances experienced at ARUP Labs. To insure 100% protection during extended outages, a backup generator is being integrated into the system.