Harris Electric Powers a Critical Chiller Replacement at a Lloydminster-Region Hospital
New 800A external service. Four sets of 250 MCM cable. Zero disruption to hospital operations.
See the Job
Project Video
Client Overview
A hospital in the Lloydminster region undergoing a chiller replacement — a project that meant shutting down part of the facility's essential power bus, the circuit that keeps critical life-safety systems running. On a live hospital site, there's no room for guesswork, no room for rework, and no tolerance for an outage that runs longer than planned.
The Challenge
The Challenge
The new chillers needed an entirely new external 800A electrical service, which meant pulling four full sets of 250 MCM aluminum cable to the building exterior. That work happened through an actual Prairie winter — days at −50°C, plus snow, rain, and mud across the different phases of the job — all while coordinating a shutdown of live critical hospital infrastructure with zero tolerance for disruption to patient care.
The Solution
What We Did
Planned and coordinated the essential-bus shutdown down to the detail before a single breaker was touched — tools staged, crew briefed, sequence locked in ahead of time so the outage window stayed as short as possible.
Pulled four full sets of 250 MCM aluminum 3-wire cable to bring the new 800A external service to the building, working through sub-zero winter conditions across multiple phases of the job.
Installed and qualified two new breakers — 800A and 200A — on the essential bus, with every connection torqued to spec, every phase verified, and every terminal checked before anything was re-energized.
Commissioned the system from initial energization through verified line voltage at the chillers, then delivered the full low-voltage integration — every cable for the building automation system's valves, sensors, and pumps — coordinating directly with the facility's automation partner, Johnson Controls.
The Result
Measurable Impact
New 800A external service energized with zero unplanned disruption to hospital operations.
Every breaker connection qualified and verified before hospital systems went live again.
Full building automation integration delivered alongside the electrical work, not left as a gap for another trade.
Cable pull and terminations completed on schedule despite severe winter site conditions.
Why It Matters
The Bigger Picture
Hospital electrical work carries essentially zero margin for error — the essential bus is the backup that keeps life-safety systems running, and a mistake there isn't just an inconvenience, it's a patient safety risk. A cutover like this takes the kind of planning and qualification discipline shown here: staged tools, a locked-in shutdown sequence, and every connection checked before re-energizing, not just showing up and swapping breakers.
Safety: critical power systems restored and fully verified before handoff, with no compromise on hospital operations.
Technical depth: full building automation integration delivered alongside the electrical work, not left as a gap for another trade to pick up later.
Reliability: severe winter conditions didn't delay or compromise the quality of the install.
Backed By
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
It comes down to logistics and planning done well before anything is switched off — coordinating the crew, staging every tool, and making sure everyone is on the same page before the essential bus is shut down.
We seated two new breakers into the essential bus, an 800A and a 200A, with our lead qualifying every connection — torque spec, phase match, and every nut and bolt checked before the system was re-energized.
The new chillers required more capacity than the existing service could support, so we ran four full sets of 250 MCM aluminum cable to bring a new 800A service to the exterior of the building — work that also happened to fall across some of the coldest days of the winter.
Yes. Beyond the line voltage and power side, we ran every communication cable for the building's automation system — every valve, temperature sensor, and pump — coordinating with the facility's automation partner, Johnson Controls.
