NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 12

Dispatches
than what they actually experience, according to the report's
authors.
Experts say the findings didn't come as a shock. Even
before the report was released, the National Electrical Code®
(NEC®
) had been moving toward requiring smaller electrical
systems for certain parts of health care facilities. But the new
study, which experts say is the most comprehensive effort to
date to examine the gap between electrical load calculations
and peak demand at hospitals, raises questions over whether
the NEC should undergo further revisions to keep up with
the efficiency of modern electrical systems.
" This study introduces some interesting data, and it's not
surprising to me that modern hospitals aren't using as much
electricity as they had in the past, " said Corey Hannahs, a
senior electrical content specialist at NFPA. " For several
years, we have been seeing many factors, like government
initiatives to lower energy consumption, driving a drop in
actual electrical loads at hospitals. "
Efficiency trend
When the concept for the Foundation study first took shape
in 2019, the plan wasn't to look exclusively at electrical loads
in hospitals.
" We planned to look at electrical loads in multiple occupancies, "
said Troy Savage, a project manager at Mazzetti,
the study's lead author. " But after the pandemic started, we
realized we had a unique opportunity-for the first time in
a hundred years, you could say [since the 1918 flu outbreak],
to look at electrical loads in hospitals during a pandemic.
At the same time, offices were shutting down, schools were
shutting down, so it simply didn't make sense for us to look
at those other occupancies. "
Savage and other researchers received approval from the
Foundation to shift the focus of their study to hospitals and
chose eight health care facilities across the country in which
to install hundreds of meters. The meters measured electricity
use in several areas of each hospital, including standard
patient rooms, imaging departments, and intensive care
units. Generally, the study found that electrical systems were
the least oversized for areas like the ICU, where powerful
equipment like ventilators can be operating nonstop. In the
highest plug load researchers observed during the study, one
ICU with over 220 receptacles and seven circuits was found to
have systems designed to handle loads only 46 percent higher
than what was observed. An obstetrics unit at another facility,
on the other hand, had systems that were oversized by 1,146
percent.
Savage stopped short of saying the results of the study
should lead to changes to the NEC. " What the data shows
is that there's certainly large spare capacity between the
required sizing per the NEC guidelines and the highest loads
these systems ever see in a worst-case scenario, " he said. " But
I would leave it to others to decide how much of a gap there
should be. "
Already, though, the NEC has been changed in recent
years to reflect the shifting reality of increasingly efficient
12 | NFPA JOURNAL * SPRING 2022
health care lighting. For the 2020 edition of the code, committee
members cut the hospital lighting load calculation
requirements by 20 percent, said Hannahs. " There have
been major technical and energy advancements in recent
years, " he said, " and this section hadn't been modified since
the 1970s. "
" Armed with this information, the minimum
NEC requirements for hospital loading
could be adjusted to reflect the real-world
data presented in this important project. "
Additionally, NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, has
long recognized the large gap in what the NEC requires
and what actual peak electrical demand in hospitals is. Specifically,
the handbook for the code instructs users to size
hospital generators based on the " actual demand rather than
the connected load. " Sizing it based on NEC requirements
often results in " generators that are very
large relative to their actual demands, "
the handbook says. " This oversizing can
actually impair the reliability of the generators
over time due to operation below
minimum load levels. "
NFPA.ORG/
DISPATCHES
Read the full
FPRF study on
electricity use in
hospitals.
At the same time, Hannahs explained that " leaving adequate
room within the electrical service " is critical not only
for patient care during a pandemic, but also for other activities
that may take place at hospitals, including renovations
or other forms of construction. The study itself also notes
that hospital administrator decisions, such as canceling elective
procedures and diverting non-COVID patients to other
sites, led to lower levels of energy use during the pandemic;
a hospital that didn't take such actions could in theory see
higher energy use numbers.
Jeffrey Sargent, the NFPA staff liaison to the NEC, lauded
both the quality and quantity of data gathered in the Foundation
report, and said it will be a valuable asset as committee
members work on future editions of the code. " The pandemic
has put many hospitals at near-full capacity for long
durations of time, which, in an unfortunate irony, has been
beneficial in accumulating real-time data under these taxing
conditions, " Sargent said. " Armed with this information, the
minimum NEC requirements for hospital loading could be
adjusted, if necessary, to reflect the real-world data presented
in this important project. "
If NEC requirements are further adjusted as a result of
the Foundation study and potential future research, Savage
pointed to a number of benefits that could emerge, namely
cost savings and energy efficiency. " As we look to build
hospitals and health care facilities for the next generation,
having this research will be really impactful down the line, "
he said.
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