Medical Center Looks Outside Its Walls for Healthier Power
By Staff -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 3/1/2004
A regional medical center in North Carolina was suffering from its own version of skyrocketing medical costs last year, brought on by poor power quality. Voltage sags were causing major damage to the exciter element in the facility's magnetic resonance imaging machine, and repairs were running $250,000 each time the element needed fixing. The solution was a UPS system that could be installed outdoors. The factory-assembled unit, with a capacity of 313 kVA/250 kW, was installed in January 2003. It is expected to save the facility more than $500,000 per year in repair costs, providing an almost-immediate return on investment.
