TechSite Blog OhioHealth Taking care of Safety and Maintenance

by: Ron Partin, Director of Construction at TechSite OhioHealth is a company that takes employee and contractor safety seriously. They are also a company that knows the importance of preventative maintenance when managing a mission critical facility. This is illustrated by several recent system studies and equipment modifications at OhioHealth's corporate data center facility.In 2015, OhioHealth hired TechSite to perform a Short Circuit, Arc Flash Risk and Breaker Coordination Study. NFPA 70E requires that an arc flash risk assessment to be updated when a major modification or renovation takes place and/or a period not to exceed 5 years. After this study was completed, several pieces of equipment were discovered to have a rating above a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Category 4.Based on this information, those pieces of equipment rated above PPE Category 4 could not be worked on or fully maintained while they are energized. Because of the critical nature of the OhioHealth data center, de-energizing equipment is not an acceptable practice. However, OhioHealth knows that proper preventative maintenance is needed to keep critical facilities online 24/7.In 2016, TechSite engineers worked with OhioHealth personnel, Mid-City Electric, and equipment providers to develop a solution to lower the PPE Categories to a level that would allow safe maintenance to be performed. After a solution was developed and approved, TechSite's construction team took over the implementation of the project in late 2017.Part of the solution required two pieces of switchgear in the standby electrical bus to be replaced. TechSite project managers and engineers worked with OhioHealth personnel and Mid-City Electric to develop a Method of Procedure (MOP) to implement this work. Following the MOP, TechSite's construction team oversaw the work to replace these two pieces of switchgear. This work was completed with no interruption of power to the OhioHealth data center.Once the new switchgear components were in place and operational, the second part of the solution involved calibrating electronic trip devices to coordinate the existing systems. This provided lower arc-flash hazard levels in the equipment that had previously been above PPE Category 4.With the Arc Flash Mitigation work complete, OhioHealth can now perform required preventative maintenance work while keeping OhioHealth employees and contractors safe.