AROUND THE LAB

The original LLE emergency diesel standby generator, rated at 600 KW, was installed In 1976 and operated until December of 2019, when mechanical issues could no longer be addressed because replacement parts were not readily available. At that point, a temporary rental generator was put in place and planning for a permanent unit was initiated. Unfortunately, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic just a few months later put the plans on hold while the necessary materials could be obtained. After months of planning, accounting for the Omega Laser Operation Group’s busy schedule, and avoiding the general adverse effects of a prolonged power disruption, the completion date of the project was set around the Omega September maintenance period this year.

LLE’s Facility Manager, John Sawyer, assembled a team of highly skilled individuals, which included the LLE electrical team led by Nate Heckman, as well as others from the University of Rochester Utilities and Energy Management, including Mike Whitmore and Nik Terpak. The people listed, working with M/E Engineering, P.C. of Rochester NY, provided the design and created the plans/drawings that were submitted to the town for approval and permitting.

LLE’s Administrative Division Director and Controller Steven Stagnitto worked with the University to obtain funding. Normally there would be time to plan for the needed funds but with the existing generator failing abruptly, Stagnitto needed to locate the funding quickly. This was not an easy task since the generator is an expensive piece of equipment. Once funding was established, William Byrne, the LLE Purchasing Manager, sent out bids and negotiated contracts.

For this project, Connors-Haas, Inc. was selected as the general contractor. Steel fabrication and structural components were either purchased or fabricated. Site work was required since the new generator was much larger and required a larger footprint. An area was dug out, a new concrete pad was poured, and fuel lines were excavated and relocated. A mechanical subcontractor was also involved because demolition work was required to remove existing components. LLE is located within the Town of Brighton, which responded quickly and thoroughly reviewing drawings and site plans. Its board approved the project and a building permit was granted.

A tremendous amount of coordination and planning was required between all the internal Divisions within LLE. The project commenced with the temporary generator being taken out of service in early September, approximately three weeks before the annual building electrical power shut down. Typically, the shutdown occurs in December but was moved earlier this year to allow maintenance on the high-voltage electrical gear. The new system is called the emergency generator substation and power distribution project. A new 1250-KW Caterpillar generator provides more than twice the amount of emergency power as the original. However, to be able to distribute the increase of emergency power, all the electrical gear, which includes breakers, electrical transfer switches, cables, and a substation, needed to be replaced.

Three weeks prior to the shutdown, most of LLE’s IT staff focused their attention on creating safe shutdown processes for services that could be shut down. For the services that were deemed essential, long hours were spent analyzing power use, moving systems to different circuits, and developing contingency plans to try and mitigate the impact should any of that hardware still lose power.

The first day of the shutdown was Saturday, 25 September. On that day, all normal incoming power to the Laboratory was turned off. Then, all normal and emergency power circuits were placed on two standby generators that operated for one full week. One of these generators was the temporary unit that had operated from 2019. It was paired with a new rental generator and the two of them supplied the emergency power. During that week, the existing substation used to supply LLE’s main power was disconnected and dismantled. Once all the old electrical gear was removed, the new gear was assembled and installed. On Saturday, 2 October, the process was reversed, and all circuits supplied from the emergency generators were removed from the generators and reconnected to the new substation. By the end of the evening, all circuits were operational, and the two rental generators were turned off and were removed from the site. In the process over 7600 gallons of fuel, at a cost of roughly $19,000, were burned to maintain the 170 hours of run time for the two generators.