Project: Working safely on live electrical circuits in a 24/7 bank data centre

Solution: Schneider Electric Isobar circuit isolation system

An innovative electrical circuit isolation system is helping the National Australia Bank to expand its power system safely and efficiently while maintaining critical up time for its financial transaction processing centre.

The National Australia Bank's Data Facility at Wantirna, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, processes thousands of ATM transactions every second on a continuous basis. Being so critical, down time for any reason whatsoever can have a significantly detrimental effect to the bank. So when upgrades that affect the processing of these transactions need to be made to the facility's power system, it's vital to keep the disruption to the power supply as short as possible.

To operate this vital facility, the bank, like many other businesses and community services, requires an uninterrupted and regulated power supply 24 hours a day, seven days a week so its computers and essential equipment can function around the clock. This often makes work difficult - and unsafe - for electrical professionals to work on the electrical system or install new equipment.

Dean Shipton, general manager of Shiplec Electrical Contractors, knows just how dangerous live circuits can be. Following a near-fatal accident, when his father touched an unshrouded live busbar, he started to look for alternative installation practices.

Shipton explains: "We were working on a late-night job changing hundreds of circuits when I looked over and saw Dad at a switchboard, not responding. I knew straight away he was being electrocuted, so I tackled him to break the connection. Luckily, Dad survived. But I was desperate to find a safer system. After attending a seminar hosted by Schneider Electric on a new product range, I saw the answer - Isobar."

The Isobar system isolates unused outgoing poles from the main power supply to reduce the risk of electrocution of electricians who have to work with live circuits. It features a patented busbar disconnection system for each busbar tee-off and allows any tee-off to be converted to a neutral.

"The busbar disconnection system offers the highest levels of safety for both the installer and the end user. It was just what I was looking for," added Shipton. "The encapsulated busbar system and connections to the main isolators means electrical contractors are protected against direct contact with live components. Circuit breakers can now be removed or fitted with extra safety."

"Isobar's features excited me. With the help of our switchboard manufacturer, Sine Switchboards, I started to design the layout of future switchboards to house Isobar chassis."

Shiplec Electrical Contractors approached the National Australia Bank Data Facility with this innovative product, housed within a structure to suit the bank's existing distribution boards. The structure consisted of 192 poles supplying termination zones controlled by multiple Isobar chassis that were to be monitored by power analysers to help with phase balancing.

National Australia Bank's Data Facilities head engineer, David Brooke, immediately noticed the advantages, commenting: "Unlike the existing boards that are unable to be worked on live, the new design allows us to continue to use the entire switchboard chassis while the installed circuit breakers are being exchanged."

Shiplec Electrical's proposal was approved, resulting in 16 custom Isobar switchboards being constructed and put into operation throughout the bank's primary data centres. The system is now helping NAB's information technology centre service its ever-changing needs in this vital facility by enabling its power system to be safely and efficiently modified and expanded as needed.

"This technical advantage is almost as important as the safety benefits," continued Brooke. "Exchanging circuit breakers while they were still energised allowed us to keep up power to our computer systems and data processing."

"Using Isobar means no more power shutdowns, which are expensive in staff overtime and may result in electricity fluctuations to critical IT equipment. But most of all, it's safer for electrical contractors."

Over the past 35 years, the commercial and industrial markets have been at the core of the Shiplec Electrical business. They intend to continue to offer Isobar to current and future clients, giving businesses diversity without loss of productivity and, most importantly, loss of lives.