Enhancing safety at Amphia Hospital with measurements and MFED

Enhancing safety at Amphia Hospital with measurements and MFED

Referentie Amphia Ziekenhuis
Amphia is one of the largest general hospitals in the Netherlands with 550 beds, over 340 specialists, 4500 employees and 340 volunteers. In addition to an older hospital, four new areas have been built in recent years, including emergency and intensive medical care. Like all hospitals, Amphia uses equipment that has to meet the strictest standards and requires high quality mains power to ensure reliable and safe operation. After all, interruption or failure of critical medical equipment, for example due to poor Power Quality, can affect patient safety.
3 Active Harmonic Filters
Harmonic distortion from 10% to 4-6%
Ensure safety and compliance with standards

Challenge

“I had previously approached HyTEPS to perform measurements in the existing building, so it made sense to ask them to assess Power Quality in the new section,” says Eric de Borst, Amphia’s Installation Manager and Construction Coordinator Service Safety, Technology & Real Estate. “This is because we were experiencing some odd disturbances that could potentially affect operation of our equipment.”

“Our electrical system is reasonably large and complex. There are 9x 10kV kW transformers at the new building site and 8x 10kV transformers at the existing building. The New Building houses two DRUPS (Dynamic Rotating UPS) systems and the Older Building contains two emergency generators. Total connection capacity of Amphia is 6 MW. Previous measurements had shown that our DRUPS system, which serves as a no-break installation and mains filter, negatively affected harmonic distortion. We were experiencing increased harmonic distortion in voltage (THDu) at the 10kV/400V level.”

Objectives

  • Determine general PQ at low voltage of Amphia’s new building section.
  • Carry out measurements on power transformers
  • Implement appropriate solution
  • Continuous insight into power quality aspects, such as harmonic distortion.
  • Ongoing advice and optimization

Solutions

“After commissioning the New Building section, the hospital wanted to ensure that all their equipment, for example in operating theatres, would continue to work safely,” Christan van Dorst explains. “We inspected parts of the installation for harmonics. PQ meters were installed on each of the main distributors for one week. Meanwhile, the hospital continued to function as usual. In view of the increased harmonic distortion, we installed three Active Harmonic Filters (AHF) on the measured main distributors.  A HyTEPS MFED (Multifunctional Energy Device) was also installed. This allows for continuous monitoring of the status of the new equipment, as well as that of other equipment connected to the grid. The HyTEPS Power Competence Centre can observe the situation at any time and offer advice if required.”

Results

By implementing the Active Harmonic Filters, harmonic currents are compensated, reducing THDu. This further increases the safety and reliability of the electrical system, and the hospital remains largely within the values prescribed by various standards.

“Thanks to the MFED, I have continuous insight into the status of the filters and the quality of the mains voltage,” says Eric. “I would like to use this system more widely, and not just for monitoring Power Quality aspects. We could also use it to accurately monitor our consumption, for example. The idea is that HyTEPS will periodically monitor the system so that we can determine, for example, what effect new equipment has had on the grid. Power Quality is a separate branch within electrical engineering and bringing in up-to-date expertise in this area is of the utmost importance. HyTEPS is an ideal party for this.”

Thanks to the MFED, I have continuous insight into the status of the filters and the quality of the mains voltage
Eric de Borst, Construction Coordinator Service Core Safety, Technology & Real Estate Amphia
 

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