In an article on the Consulting-Specifying Engineer website, engineers with healthcare experience offer tips on electrical and power systems.

They were asked to describe some recent electrical/power system challenges they encountered.

"In general, working in an existing building presents more difficulties than designing new buildings primarily because of many reasons: undocumented pre-existing conditions, lack of utility spaces, and low ceiling heights. When upgrading the electrical systems, we also have to take into consideration the adequacy of the existing system’s spare capacity and ability to support new systems," said Essi Najafi, Global Engineering Solutions, Rockville, Md. 

"On a recent project we completed for the University of Maryland Medical Center, we needed a new 400-amp feeder to provide adequate power for new computed tomography (CT) equipment. During construction, we found out that the panel that was originally designated to handle the new feeder was not adequate. Equipment supported by that panel had been temporarily disconnected the day the readings were taken. As a result, we needed to bring in power from a substation located farther away from the actual project. The challenge was to figure out the distribution in the field without single-line or riser diagram drawings of the existing system." 

Read the article.