UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FACILITY CASE STUDY

Emergency Response at a World-Class Research Facility

The importance of electrical power in a university research facility is several-fold. Not only can an outage interrupt classes for potentially hundreds of students, but it can spell serious trouble for any sensitive research being conducted.

That’s why, when a world-class research facility experienced an emergency outage recently, they came to Trinity Power looking for a quick solution.

The Client: A “Living Laboratory” in Sustainable Building Practices

Located on the campus of one of Canada’s largest universities, our client, a “living laboratory” research building, aims to generate and test sustainable building technologies in order to encourage their mainstream use.

By analyzing data gathered from the building’s resource use and systems’ functioning on an ongoing basis, researchers hope to model innovative sustainable building practices and technologies, and serve as a catalyst for urban development practices and policies.

The Challenge: An Emergency Outage in a Difficult Location

In late August, one of the main distribution panels in our client’s building failed, causing an emergency outage.

With students, staff, research and communications equipment affected by the outage, it was important to restore power to the building quickly.

So far, a familiar situation for Trinity’s emergency response team. But this outage posed a particular challenge: because the temporary power equipment would have to be maneuvered down an elevator and around the tight corners of the building’s basement, any units that Trinity provided would have to fit within specific size parameters.

Our Approach: Multiple Options, One Quick Response

Within 30 minutes of receiving the call, the Trinity team had drawn up a comprehensive quote, including a detailed specification package and a single line diagram.

After considering several proposals and consulting heavily with the temporary power specialists at Trinity Power, our client opted for a solution involving a single distribution panel with cable.

In the end, we provided:

• a 1200A I-line panel with 11 I-line breakers,
• 50 feet of 4/0 camlok cable to connect the source to the panel;
• and an additional 50 feet of cable to connect each breaker to its load.

Undaunted by the client’s size requirements, our technicians modified the equipment’s frame, plasma cutting its high points before it was shipped to the site.

The Result: Same-Day Power Restoration

Thanks to Trinity Power’s well-honed emergency response services and our clear and open communication, we were able to deliver equipment that not only met our client’s power requirements, but also their unique size restrictions.

Because of this, our client was able to restore power to their building the same day, allowing the centre’s important research to continue.