Backing up the Bellagio for Optimum Performance

Even though vacationing abroad and experiencing the architecture and culture of quaint European villages and ancient cities can be prohibitively expensive, places such as Las Vegas offer a more economical way to experience simulated venues.

One such psuedo-experience is taking in the $1.6 billion Bellagio Hotel and Casino, which features an opulent lobby, shopping promenade, botanical garden, traveling art exhibit and an 8.5-acre lake, complete with choreographed dancing water fountains. Strangely, the 36-story hotel with 3,005 guest quarters has more rooms than its namesake—the northern Italian village of Bellagio—has residents!

While all these hotel guests and visitors are busy playing blackjack, attending shows or shopping, casino owners are focused on keeping their operation running 24/7 to be able to bring in the roughly $3 million per day revenues. To protect this investment, an extensive backup power system exists, consisting of seven 1,750-kW diesel generators, capable of generating 12 MW at full power.

In addition, eight UPS units are connected to the resort's critical loads—including computers, security systems, emergency lighting, elevators and restaurant refrigerators—to ensure instantaneous power in the event of a utility outage.

With a customized supervisory control and data acquisition system also incorporated into the facility's electrical infrastructure, resort operators can monitor and integrate all loads, switches and circuit breakers. What's more, the system can deliver a comprehensive report of power irregularities, as well as pinpoint when, where and how power was lost, and whether it's possible to address the problem on site.

Proactively, and in accordance with federal regulations, operators conduct weekly tests, running the backup generators with no load for 15 to 20 minutes. In addition, once a month, switchgear is utilized to parallel the resort's utility feed, and then bring the backup system on-line to carry the electrical load for 30 minutes. Even though the full-scale backup power system is capable of powering Bellagio's entire operation for up to 35 hours, at present, the system is only connected to critical loads.