Have you ever stopped to wonder who is in charge of the most critical components of a building? The life safety, the data center, the electricity? Well a good amount of the time its Washington, DC Electrical Alliance contractors. These contractors are well known for the many high profile projects they build each year in the Washington, DC metro area. When a project demands the very highest standards of electrical installation and safe, on-time completion, an Electrical Alliance contractor has become a go-to option for many projects.
Electrical Alliance contractors are also known and respected for completing jobs with a high degree of difficulty, including unusual sets of circumstances and schedule requirements that only the very best electrical contractors can handle.
Electrical Alliance contractor VarcoMac Electrical Construction successfully completed a challenging project for the International Monetary Fund working with general contractor Turner Construction. Completed on schedule, the project required close coordination and the creative use of manpower.
The IMF’s data center project involved the renovation of an existing space to relocate an existing data center within the same building. This fast track project consisted of 12,000 square feet of new data center and UPS rooms and required completion within a five-month time frame. Sixty percent of electrical scope was completed in a little over a month despite delays that included 29 bulletins, over 200 RFIs, and approximately 200 drawings being changed throughout the process. Work was accomplished by coordinating day shifts consisting of 20 workers, night shifts consisting of 10 workers, and Saturday and Sunday labor consisting of more than 30 workers. Electrical improvements included two new 750KVA UPS systems, power distribution units, remote power panels, lighting, fire alarm, and emergency power off systems.
In addition to the IMF data center, Electrical Alliance contractors also tackled another highly visible project in the DC metro area.
When the Public Broadcasting System decided to renovate and upgrade its Northern Virginia Satellite Operating Center, it recognized the importance of having the very best construction team on the job. Working in conjunction with Hitt Contracting, Electrical Alliance contractor Power Services, was responsible for a substantial electrical upgrade to the 37-year-old facility.
“Fixing the wing of an airplane while in flight” is how one PBS executive described the project, since all the electrical work on the renovation had to be installed and commissioned without any interruptions to the daily 24/7 broadcasting operations of the facility.
Power Services successfully met the challenge while transitioning the PBS main broadcast/data center facility from an existing 208/120V service to a new 1600A 480/277V service. In addition, the project required the synchronized replacement of three existing generators and an existing fuel system as new equipment was brought online. Specific phasing challenges included re-feeding PBS’s existing two 500kVA uninterrupted power systems on to the new power distribution gear and individually re-feeding 17 225A wall-mounted distribution panels powering the data center load.
Power Services’ high-quality craftsmanship and innovative thinking on the job assured the PBS airplane continued its flight without a hitch
