The main hospital facility on a remote island of American Samoa desperately needs to replace key components of a failing 35 year old electrical distribution system.
Pago Pago, on the main island of Tutila, is the capital center of American Samoa in the South-Central Pacific Ocean. The LBJ Tropical Medical Center, a 128-bed general acute care hospital, is the only hospital in the territory.
The Medical Center provides a broad scope of general inpatient and outpatient services covering: medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ear, nose and throat (ENT), eye, pediatrics, and renal dialysis. In addition, the hospital is the only clinical laboratory, diagnostic imaging and outpatient pharmacy services facility in American Samoa.
THE CHALLENGE
Design and build 480V switchgear and service entrance switchboards to fit into an existing hospital facility with critical dimensional challenges. The lineup required the ability to automatically transfer between normal utility power and auxiliary power sources.
At the 11th hour, responsibility to package for overseas shipment was thrust upon IEM for shipping to American Samoa by cargo ship.
THE SOLUTION
IEM worked closely with the Consulting Engineer to design equipment that would work in a tropical environment, fit into existing mechanical rooms, and allow efficient operation by a non-technical workforce. The solution featured two 4000 amp line-ups (facing each other) with multiple automatic transfer sections, a 3000 amp generator switchboard, a remote alarm/indicator panel, and 16 distribution switchboards.
Thermostats were integrated into every section due to the condensation and humidity found in the tropical Samoan environment. The thermostats controlled space heaters that were mounted along the bottom of each switchboard section in outdoor (and some indoor) gear to protect electronic devices like meters and relays from the moisture. Water from moisture can also ruin the internal components, the PCB’s, integrated circuits, and welded connections and can compromise the ability of the copper bus to conduct current efficiently.
IEM’s shipping department crated each switchboard, shrink wrapped them and loaded them into shipping containers for transport. All equipment was then double-braced within the containers.
Stacy Allen, IEM’s San Diego area distributor with Allen Power Distribution & Control Inc., took on the responsibility for ordering all the necessary 3000 and 4000 amp cable bus and miscellaneous material that was needed for this installation, as very little material was directly available on the island. “I especially enjoyed the interactive approach IEM took during the bidding negotiation phase. Through their efforts we were able to modify the design of the transfer schemes to create a more reliable scheme”, said Stacy.
THE RESULTS
Witness testing at the factory went smoothly and the equipment arrived in pristine condition, in time to service the critical needs of American Samoa.
