Across the life of any facility, numerous renovations and construction projects can occur.  It can sometimes be difficult for a property owner to maintain up-to-date documentation of their electrical systems. Smaller projects usually only include a minimal portion of the electrical riser diagram, and the original building single line quickly becomes inaccurate, leaving the owners without any kind of Master Diagram of the electrical system. As a result, countless hours are wasted on projects surveying the most recent existing conditions and in many cases, new equipment is installed with perfectly good equipment abandoned in place that could have been re-used. This leads to messy, convoluted, and cramped electrical systems.

Wick Fisher White has been working with major data center clients to avoid these situations by taking a different approach. By creating and maintaining a Master copy of the electrical system, Wick Fisher White is able to not only provide property managers with a current picture of their electrical system, but also coordinate and assist with other designers and contractors to determine the most efficient and cost effective solution for their power requirements. We believe this same approach can be applied to various other types of facilities including high rise, healthcare,  educational buildings where frequent construction takes place. This approach also provides a great advantage where electrical selective coordination is required. By maintaining a Master Diagram, we are able to recommend specific circuit breaker and fuse types that will meet coordination and electrical code requirements.  In doing so, our electrical design team is also able to calculate arc flash hazards and create labels for equipment, so that if live work or switching must be performed, building engineers and contractors are able to breathe easy knowing what PPE (personnel protective equipment) to use based on calculated values that are kept up to date.