Page 1426 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 May 2017
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For the information of members and to provide context, the main electrical switchboard room is in the basement of Canberra Hospital building 2 adjacent to the tower block, and it houses nine switchboards. Only one switchboard was directly impacted by this incident. It was found that generator power supplies had also been adversely impacted due to localised fire damage within the affected switchboard section.
Following the initial assessment of the affected area, works immediately commenced to install a backup switchboard. The switchboard was already available on site as a contingency in the event of failure of power supply services arising from a damaged switchboard section, as was experienced on the night of the incident.
On the completion of a full safety inspection, all unaffected electrical switchboard sections within the main electrical switchboard room were incrementally re-energised to restore electrical supply to the affected buildings. Power was restored at around 2 am to most areas however work continued throughout the night to restore power to lifts in buildings 1, 3 and 5.
By 10:30 am the following morning, Thursday, 6 April 2017, the onsite contingency backup switchboard had been energised, ensuring adequate lifts were operational to facilitate the transportation of patients, staff and goods throughout the hospital campus.
Further remediation work has been undertaken since the incident to reinstate full pre-incident functionality to the building 2 electrical main switchboard facility. This remediation work has involved further electrical isolations in specific areas of the hospital, primarily in buildings 1 and 3. To ensure patient safety is not compromised and to minimise disruption, each shutdown has been conducted overnight and extensively planned by ACT Health staff. Each piece of work has run according to plan, with minimal disruption to patients and clinical areas.
This remediation work has been implemented by the recently appointed head contractor team of Shaw Building Group and Shepherd Electrical as a variation to their contracted scope to deliver new electrical main switchboard facilities for building 2 and building 12 at Canberra Hospital. The head contractor team to replace the electrical main switchboard facilities in buildings 2 and 12 was appointed on 7 April 2017. The tender closed in September 2016 and was subject to contract negotiations. Prior to this, preliminary works commenced as part of the longer term upgrade of the buildings, which is part of the long-term electrical distribution upgrade strategy for Canberra Hospital.
The replacement of electrical main switchboard facilities in buildings 2 and 12 is a major part of the ACT government’s 2016-17 budget initiative upgrading and maintaining ACT Health assets, a program of work which comprises a variety of building infrastructure projects budgeted at over $90 million over a three-year time frame.
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