BUILDING SOLUTIONS
CODES AND STANDARDS
By Richard I. Gilson, IMEG Corp., Phoenix
A practical understanding
of NFPA 110-2016
Consulting engineers who specify emergency power equipment understand
that installations for mission critical facilities, such as hospitals and data centers,
are required to comply with NFPA 110: Standard for Emergency and Standby
Power Systems in conjunction with codes such as NFPA 70: National Electrical
Code (NEC). This article will review the most recent version (2016) of NFPA 110
and offer tips for compliance.
N
FPA 110: Standard for Emergen-
cy and Standby Power Systems cov-
ers the installation, operation, and
testing criteria related to the perfor-
mance of a mission critical facility’s
emergency power supply system. A full understand-
ing of the standard is critical for specifying engi-
neers who design such facilities.
Having a full understanding of 2016 NFPA 110
requirements starts with familiarity with the follow-
ing emergency power system acronyms, used fre-
quently throughout this article:
• EPS: emergency power supply. This includes
the emergency power source with the cal-
culated capacity and quality required for
the emergency supply system (see Figure 1).
This can include rotating generators—diesel
or propane/natural gas, flywheel generators,
steam turbine, or uninterruptible power sup-
ply (UPS) systems.
• EPSS: emergency power supply system. This
includes the total functioning system of con-
ductors, disconnecting means, the EPS, over-
current protective devices, transfer switches,
controls, supervisory alarms, and support
devices—up to and including the load termi-
nals of the transfer equipment to operate safely
and as a reliable source of electrical power.
• ATS: automatic transfer switch. Self-acting
equipment that transfers the connected load
from one power source to another.
10 • November 2018 CONSULTING-SPECIFYING ENGINEER
• Level 1 EPSS: Installed where a failure of the
primary energy power source could result in
loss of life or serious injuries.
• Level 2 EPSS: Installed where a failure of the
primary energy power source is less critical
to life or safety.
• Mission critical: A system that is essen-
tial to the survival of a business or organiza-
tion. When a mission critical system fails or
is interrupted, business operations are sig-
nificantly impacted. Mission critical facilities
include data centers, hospitals, laboratories,
and higher education research laboratories.
It also should be understood that in NFPA
definitions, use of the word “shall” is taken to
mean “mandatory.” Use of the word “should”
denotes a recommendation that is advised, but
not required.
While the design professional is responsi-
ble for assigning the class and level of a project’s
EPSS, this decision should be made in collabora-
tion with the owner to confirm the intent of the
facility use. For this reason, NFPA 110 does not
prescribe assignments. Facility requirements are
provided, however, in other NFPA sections, such
as NFPA 99-2018: Health Care Facilities Code for
health care facilities. It is important to note that
NFPA 110 clarifies that it is a minimum standard
and does not prohibit equivalent equipment that
provides better quality, strength, durability, or
safety, among other items.
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Chapters 1-3 of NFPA 110 cover the admin-
istration and applicability of the standard and
define what the standard covers and does not
cover. Chapter 2 is a comprehensive list of other
NFPA standards and other publications that are
intended to work cohesively with this standard.
Chapter 3 is a list of definitions that are used in
the publication.
This article focuses on Chapters 7 and 8 and
concludes with highlights from Chapters 4-6.
Chapter 7: Installation and
environmental considerations
NFPA 110, Chapter 7, covers generator
installation and environmental conditions. The
climate, elevation, and seismic zone of the geo-
graphic location are crucial factors to consider,
in addition to an indoor or outdoor placement of
the generator. The building type and classifica-
tion of occupancy also affect the design.
State and local codes regarding the installation
of emergency generators also affect the design.
Some states require that if an EPSS is installed
belowgrade, there must be supporting design to
minimize damage from flooding, sewer backup,
or other disasters. If it is located in an area prone
to flooding, structural implications of install-
ing the EPSS above the 10-year flood plane must
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Figure 1: The central energy plant of the St. Louis VA Medical Center,
Jefferson Barracks Division, includes 7.5 MW of standby generation.
IMEG provided engineering design for the new central plant, which
also features a 120,000-gal. fuel oil system, 3,750 tons of chilled
water (expandable to 5,000 tons in the future), 3,000 BHP of high-
pressure steam, and a new incoming 34.5 kV to 4.16 kV 5/7 MVA
customer-owned substation. The plant is part of a $226 million, multi-
year campus transformation, which includes improving medical and
non-medical facilities and updating the campus infrastructure system.
Courtesy: IMEG Corp./Debbie Franke Photography
be considered whether located indoors
or outdoors. In such situations, some L Learning
states require an elevated structure for OBJECTIVES
the EPS and EPSS equipment. State and • Define emergency power supply
local codes also must be consulted to (EPS) and emergency power
confirm acoustical considerations at the supply system (EPSS), Level 1 and
Level 2 systems.
property line. Standby EPS may have
different requirements from prime- • Understand how to apply NEC
articles 517, 700, 701, and 702 to
mover EPS installations. NFPA 99 and 110.
Regardless of the design, remote
• Explain the need for risk analysis
power-off pushbuttons are required to in locating the EPS and EPSS
be located on the exterior of the enclo- equipment, and why coordination
sure and outside the EPS room in an with structural and mechanical
indoor location. Location of remote engineers is crucial in EPS design.
annunciators also should be discussed
with the owner. A custom alarm is recommended
for remote power-off to be annunciated to alert the
facility that the generator is offline if not located in
a secure location.
CONSULTING-SPECIFYING ENGINEER November 2018 • 11
 BUILDING SOLUTIONS
CODES AND STANDARDS
Indoor generator rooms (EPS) must be in a
2-hour-rated room for Level 1 installations if they
are rated more than 1,000 amps and 150 V or
greater phase-to-ground. EPSS distribution, ATS,
and generator operation and maintenance (O&M)
manuals are the only items allowed in this room.
If there is an outdoor enclosure, it shall be suitable
for the environmental conditions, such as wind,
rain, snow, and seismic considerations. A Level 1
EPSS also is allowed to be installed in this enclo-
sure; normal branch distribution is not allowed to
be installed in the same enclosure or room.
‘
Wet stacking is a condition in diesel
engines in which unburned fuel passes on
into the exhaust system, occurring most
commonly when a generator runs less
’
than 4 hours at less than 75% load.
An EPS installed in a non-walk-in outdoor
enclosure with a base-mounted fuel tank will raise
the generator access to a point that maintenance is
not possible without a ladder. In these instances, a
raised platform, minimum 36 in. from the genera-
tor rails, must be installed with railings and stairs
to allow full access to the maintenance doors. If the
EPSS (transfer switch equipment) is installed in a
custom outdoor walk-in enclosure, the platform
requirement is not required. Indoor-mounted EPS
must be sized to allow for 36-in. access space on each
side for maintenance. Because of the differences in
manufacturing, it is suggested that the basis of design’s
overall dimensions be part of the contract documents
to mitigate issues in construction.
Mission critical EPS/EPSS are required to have
monthly, quarterly, and annual maintenance. For a
single energy-converter EPS, the designer should
be prepared to explain what happens to the facil-
ity if a utility or interior distribution failure calls
for the energy converter to start during a routine
oil change, antifreeze replacement, or other mainte-
nance that requires the energy converter to be taken
offline. The designer and owner should determine
if the facility warrants an N+1 energy converter, 2N
paralleling gear, or temporary generator connection
with auto-start capabilities. Though first costs are
important, this is not a system that should be value-
designed down.
For a facility with a programmed growth over
a few years to meet the overall master plan, it is
important to design the initial infrastructure to
have capacity for the future. Therefore, it is com-
mon to find generators with an initial load under
12 • November 2018 CONSULTING-SPECIFYING ENGINEER
30% of the rated EPS capacity. Because exhaust-sys-
tem wet stacking can occur in these situations, it is
beneficial to design provisions for a temporary load
bank or a radiator load bank so that, during the
testing, the generators can consume greater than
30% load and eliminate the wet-stacking issue. (Wet
stacking is a condition in diesel engines in which
unburned fuel passes on into the exhaust system,
occurring most commonly when a generator runs
less than 4 hours at less than 75% load. The word
“stacking” refers to when the generator exhaust
stack becomes oily and is, therefore, a “wet stack.”)
Structural coordination is required for genera-
tors to assure solid foundations are designed and to
protect sagging fuel supplies, exhaust piping, and
conduit from damage at joints. The concrete bases
for the EPS shall be a minimum of 6 in. above the
finished floor to assist with lubricating under the
EPS. Vibration analysis should be completed by the
structural engineer, and an isolated foundation base
shall be required to eliminate vibration throughout
the structure from affecting other floors.
Coordination with a mechanical engineer is
required for indoor locations. Air for the generator
combustion-air requirements shall be installed per
the manufacturer recommendations. Ventilation air
for the EPS must be direct from outside in a 2-hour
enclosure for Level 1 installations. The outside air-
flow must be designed for the rated load of the EPS.
Fire dampers, shutters, or other automatic clos-
ing devices for supply- and exhaust-air ductwork
are not allowed for a Level 1 installation. Exterior
louvers must be designed for prevailing winds that
might blow against the radiator fan discharge air.
EPS with unit-mounted radiators must be flex-con-
nected to the exterior louver boot.
Plumbing coordination shall include floor drains
and hose bibs inside the Level 1 EPS room. Lique-
fied fuel, such as diesel, can be piped from an interior
day tank or be base-mounted. Interior fuel tanks are
restricted to a maximum of 660 gal. One of the more
controversial requirements is the Level 1 requirement
for 96 hours of fuel capacity. For health care occupan-
cies, the Joint Commission accreditation for hospital
organizations has clarified that the intent is to have
a plan for providing 96 hours of fuel capacity, not to
have a 96-hour onsite storage capacity.
Local fuel suppliers must be reliable and able
to provide a plan to certify this will be provided.
This is an important risk-analysis discussion to
have with the owner. In addition, because environ-
mental conditions can shorten diesel fuel life and
cause organic growth in tanks and lines, a plan
should exist to replace the fuel, or a fuel-polishing
system should be used (to keep the fuel refreshed)
if the fuel is not consumed every 3 months.
When using a refueling plan with a 660-gal tank
(diesel, indoors or out), NFPA 110 states that diking
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CASE STUDY: Expansion alternatives

A
s part of a bed-tower expan-
sion at a Northern Illinois
health care facility, load stud-
ies of the existing facility’s genera-
tor loads determined the life safety
and critical branches would now be
greater than the capacity of the exist-
ing generators. The existing health
care campus was served by three
400-kW, 480-V, 3-phase, 4-wire gen-
erators, paralleled from an existing
central plant whose critical and life
safety branches were measured at
80% of the capacity for the first gen-
erator to connect to the bus within
the required 10 seconds. Load cal-
culations of the proposed 6-story patient-tower addi- Figure 2: Upgraded controls allowed these two genera-
tion showed the capacity of the life safety and critical tors—no longer adequate at their original location—to
branches would exceed the capacity of one generator be repurposed for another facility in the same health care
system. Courtesy: IMEG Corp.
for connection to the bus within 10 seconds.
As part of the facility’s master plan, IMEG Corp.
proposed a few alternatives for consideration: expand-
ing the existing generator capacity to a point where
one generator would be of size to connect the load,

‘ Load studies of the existing facility’s

generator loads determined the life
safety and critical branches would now
be greater than the capacity of the

’
existing generators.
providing a replacement generator, or repurposing
existing generators at another site that were under-
sized for another project but would fit the load profile
of this project. Working with the architectural master
plan’s view of a potential campus build-out, the com-
pany recommended repurposing the existing 4,160-
V generators as the best long-term solution with the
lowest budgetary impact for the new bed-tower proj-
ect. This medium-voltage solution helped reconcile the
voltage-drop issues that were seen on the campus. A
former laundry building was repurposed to house the
two initial (and repurposed) medium-voltage genera-
tors and two additional generators for future expan-
sion (see Figure 2).
Figure 3: Paralleling switchgear with a split bus allows each
repurposed generator at a northern Illinois health care
facility to start and pick up the life safety and critical loads
within the NFPA 99-required 10 seconds. It also allows
the generators to synchronize and close the bus tie of the
paralleling gear and then pick up the remaining equipment
branch loads, all within 45 sec. Courtesy: IMEG Corp.
IMEG also designed new medium-voltage paralleling
switchgear with a split bus to allow each generator to
start and pick up the life safety and critical loads within
the NFPA 99-required 10 seconds, allow the generators
to then synchronize and close the bus tie of the paral-
leling gear, and then pick up the remaining equipment
branch loads, all within 45 seconds (see Figure 3).

www.csemag.com CONSULTING-SPECIFYING ENGINEER November 2018 • 13

 BUILDING SOLUTIONS
CODES AND STANDARDS
or remote impounding are not required, unless the
authority having jurisdiction states otherwise.
Elevation differences between a main tank and the
day tank or base-mounted tank can be problematic if
not designed properly. In certain unique installations,
an elevated fuel oil tank (above the diesel generator
cylinders) can cause excess fuel-line pressure (head)
that a check-valve failure could irreparably damage the
EPS. Special considerations from a plumbing design
must be done with EPS manufacturer approval to
eliminate a single-component failure from damaging
the generator. Close coordination is required with the
generator vendor.
NFPA 110 also clarifies that fire suppression sys-
tems in EPS rooms shall not be carbon dioxide, halon
(inergin), or automatic dry-chemical. Exceptions exist
if combustion air is indirectly connected/ducted to the
EPS combustion intake.
‘
Special considerations from a plumbing design
must be done with EPS manufacturer approval
to eliminate a single-component failure from
damaging the generator. Close coordination is
’
required with the generator vendor.
Chapter 8: Routine maintenance
and operational testing
NFPA 110, Chapter 8, covers ongoing main-
tenance and testing. The design must be done in
cooperation with the owner to determine the risk
assessment of a single generator, provisions for a
temporary generator, and paralleling generators
that will provide reliability and redundancy in case
of a component failure (generator, ATS, generator
distribution gear). The owner must be able to per-
form the following tests with minimal disruption to
the facility:
• Diesel EPS energy converters must be tested
annually under building load with supplemen-
tal load banks as required at not less than 50%
of rated (nameplate) kilowatt load. This test
shall be 30 minutes in duration.
• Spark-ignition EPS shall be exercised once a
month with the available building load for 30
minutes.
• Where multiple ATSs are installed, they
shall be rotated to verify each start signal is
functional.
14 • November 2018 CONSULTING-SPECIFYING ENGINEER
• Level 1 EPSS circuit breakers shall be exer-
cised annually.
• A Level 1 EPSS shall be tested continuously
for its class but not to exceed 4 hours.
Chapters 4-6
The actual EPSS design can begin after there is
an understanding of the program, the installation,
and the owner’s testing and maintenance require-
ments. As part of the plan development based on
NFPA 110, Chapter 4, the class, type and level, pre-
liminary block kilovolt-amps load-sizing criteria,
and the number of ATS branches can be determined.
The designer should keep in mind the owner’s crite-
ria for reliability. Can a failed transfer switch serv-
ing critical-branch loads on a patient floor eliminate
all critical-branch loads, or would two critical trans-
fer switches serving half of the floor provide a more
acceptable reliability of the EPSS?
NFPA 110, Chapter 5, provides a description
of the EPS energy sources, converters (flywheel
and UPS), and accessories. Based on the level
and building type/occupancy, a recommendation
can be made to provide diesel rotary equipment,
gasoline rotary equipment, or liquefied gaseous
rotary equipment, as well as temperature mainte-
nance and EPSS capacity. NFPA 70-2017: National
Electrical Code (NEC), Articles 700 through 702
describe typical Level 2 installations and require-
ments for Level 1 as well.
Specialty Level 1 health care occupancies also
refer to NEC Articles 700 through 702, NEC Arti-
cle 517, and NFPA 99. Consideration of and famil-
iarity with all these requirements are needed by
the design professional. The design profession-
al also must determine if the EPS is designed as a
separately derived or non-separately derived sys-
tem to design the grounding and bonding accord-
ing to NEC Article 250.
NFPA 110, Chapter 6, describes the trans-
fer switch equipment as the design relates to the
number of essential branches. ATS shall, upon loss
of utility power, send a signal to the generator to
start within 1 second, and depending on the class,
deliver power to the transfer switch from the EPS
power source. Logic to monitor restoration of util-
ity power is integral to the ATS and shall return
the source to the normal (utility-source) branch.
When the generator is sized for required loads,
but the owner elects to add additional loads not
code-required for effective facility operation,
there shall be electronic-monitoring logic to mea-
sure the total load from the EPSS and load shed
nonessential loads to assure the generator is
not overloaded. There also is a description of the bypass-
isolation ATS that is recommended for Level 1
mission critical facilities. This feature allows the
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ATS to be manually bypassed to maintain or test the
ATS. Nonautomatic transfer switches (NTS) have
electric motor operators for the ability to manu-
ally add these loads into the EPSS system either at
the NTS or from a remote location. Manual transfer
switches have no motorized operation and can only
be added into the EPSS by physically changing states
at the transfer switch.
Protection and selective coordination are
described in NFPA 110 as well as in NEC Article 517
and Articles 700 through 702. The entire EPSS must
be designed for the available load and braced for
the available fault current from the normal (utility)
branch and the EPSS. The ATS usually have a very
specific list of overcurrent devices that can be used to
achieve a series rating.
With a distribution system and EPSS system that
must be competitively bid, this can be very prob-
lematic for the designer if a careful review of shop
drawings is not done. Because electrical distribution
and EPSS shop drawings often are received at sepa-
rate times, it is very important to look at the shop
drawings as a total system and not independent
reviews. Very clear direction should be given in the
documents for the basis of design, and a power sys-
tem study should be performed by the switchgear
vendor showing compliance with all power system
‘ Because electrical distribution and
EPSS shop drawings often are received
at separate times, it is very important to
look at the shop drawings as a total
’
system and not independent reviews.
distribution and EPSS equipment. It is recommended
to delay shop-drawing review until this power system
study is confirmed to eliminate costly field changes.
Recommendations and guidelines for EPSS
equipment, wiring methods, and ratings are provided
in NFPA 110 as well as in NEC and NFPA 99, with
NFPA 110 also providing the maintenance criteria
for end users to properly test, document, and prove
compliance to all regulators. As the starting point
for every EPSS design, NFPA 110 provides technical
guidance for EPSS specification and testing—laying
out the important framework for the design profes-
sional. cse
Richard I. Gilson is a senior electrical technical spe-
cialist for IMEG Corp.
input #6 at www.csemag.com/information
Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction
prohibited without permission.