Emergency standby power - fast, strong support

Customer: UnityPoint Health - Methodist

Location: Peoria, Illinois, USA

Customer Business Issue: Continuous standby power for hospital

Solution: One Cat XQ2000 rental generator set, One Cat XQ230 rental generator set

Cat Dealer: Altorfer Cat

Power Need

UnityPoint Health - Methodist is a fullservice 330-bed healthcare facility offering healthcare in the most appropriate setting: whether that is a clinic, a hospital or at home.

Located in Peoria, Illinois, the hospital has approximately 600 board-certified physicians and a network of primary care and specialty providers throughout central Illinois.

The hospital was founded through the efforts of deaconesses of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1900. With more than 280 physician clinics, 32 hospitals in metropolitan and rural communities, and home care services, UnityPoint Health entities employ more than 30,000 healthcare professionals throughout Iowa, western Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

As part of its most recent expansion project in late 2014, the hospital decided to demolish a five-story parking garage adjacent to an atrium building, which houses doctor’s offices, a pharmacy and active physicians.

During the demolition, a portion of the deck collapsed and the transformer caught on fire, compromising the power that served the atrium. Although the incident occurred on Sunday, outside regular business hours, the facility could not afford any interruptions in power.

“We immediately reached out to our local utility company, who was unable to supply a replacement transformer for at least 3 to 4 days,” said Vance Vinson, director of facility services at UnityPoint Health. This delay forced the facility to immediately seek an alternative standby power source.

Solution

Altorfer Cat was the top-of-mind choice because of strong support they delivered to UnityPoint Health in the fall of 2013, when a tornado outbreak struck in the area. Those tornadoes brought significant power outages to the immediate community, including a prompt care facility on the UnityPoint health campus. Altorfer Cat quickly supplied a Cat® XQ175 rental generator set to serve as a standby power source.

“Altorfer understood the urgency of our needs and installed a generation system that not only promised continuous power, but had the history to back it up,” added Vinson.

A Cat XQ2000 diesel generator set with 1,000 feet of cable was delivered late Sunday morning and positioned within 100 feet of the compromised transformer to provide 2 MW of power.

“The XQ2000 is the largest diesel rental power module that Caterpillar builds,” said Melanie Wallinger, rental manager with Altorfer Cat. “We worked closely with UnityPoint Health and the utility company to get the power back into the atrium.”

Additionally, a Cat XQ230 generator set was later brought in to power the construction equipment that was responsible for completing the demolition.

“The user-friendly design features make it a breeze to transport, connect and get our customers up and running quickly. We can offer a turnkey solution with the ultimate goal of minimizing downtime. It’s a win-win for everybody,” added Wallinger.

The supplementary generator set enabled the parking deck to be safely demolished without causing further complications.

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