Science Building EM Generator

Northridge, Ca

The Science Building EM Generator at Cal State University Northridge involved the placement of a 1250KW Generator. It serves as emergency backup power to 4 Science Buildings: Live Oak Hall, Eucalyptus Hall, Citrus Hall and Magnolia Hall.

Four new automatic transfer switches (ATS) were integrated into the existing electrical infrastructure at these buildings to receive emergency generator power and transfer between that and normal power upon power loss.

The location for the new generator is adjacent to Citrus Hall and Magnolia Hall. Work commenced with the drilling in excess of 30′ to install I-beam shoring and lagging to protect the structural integrity of the two adjacent buildings. This allowed for the team to excavate the existing area and construct the generator foundation, its surrounding retaining walls, and their footings.

Careful planning between Stronghold and CSUN allowed for safe construction of the generator site, all while keeping pedestrian and vehicular traffic access open and mitigating any excess disturbance to CSUN operations.

To provide emergency power to the four buildings Stronghold was required to excavate through courtyards and breezeways. Some of these areas had minimal access to complete the work and required access to these buildings to remain open during construction. SEI formulated work plans that entailed not only the work to be performed, but also our plan to facilitate pedestrian access to and from each of the buildings, ensure the safety of all CSUN faculty and students, and coordinate a schedule that did not impact CSUN operations.

The majority of the Science Buildings at CSUN house critical pieces of equipment that required to have temp power during scheduled outages. SEI met with representatives from all of the buildings to identify these critical items.

Prior to each outage SEI constructed a temp power plan that detailed all of the equipment that would be provided with temp power. These plans not only detailed the equipment that would be served, but also detailed where the temp power spider boxes would be placed and what type and size receptacle/breaker would be serving each piece of equipment.