3E

Baker Electric Wraps Up CitiGroup Project

Just over 6 months ago, Clayco Construction of St. Louis, Missouri selected Baker Electric of Des Moines to be the electrical designers and installers for CitiGroup’s new 169,000 square foot payment processing facility in Urbandale, Iowa. 

According to Project Manager Chad Layland with Baker Electric, “one of the key elements that helped Baker Electric obtain the contract for this project was the team approach that we used to make our presentation to Clayco and the Citi representatives.  When we discussed design and delivery issues relative to the project, we had 3E’s Russ Stokes, along with Dan Maxcy of P3 right there with us assuring everyone that the project would delivered correctly and on-time.”  The representatives of Kohler, MGE, and Square D, all provided by 3E, were instrumental in assisting Baker Electric with the project design by supplying timely equipment data as well as cost and delivery information.

As the power system design was going through the various stages, 3E coordinated the flow of information between the manufacturers of the main system components.  It was vital that the main component manufacturers understood system configurations of the others’ to assure compatibility and functionality of the overall power system.  “Our goal was to provide a power system that would be reliable and robust, cost effective, and could be delivered within the project time constraints”, according to Chad.  The final electrical distribution system design consists of a 4000-amp service entrance switchgear provided by Square D, two MGE 225kVA parallel redundant UPS units and two Kohler 1MW stand-by diesel generators with Kohler paralleling switchgear and a 4000A Kohler closed transition automatic transfer switch.

Because of the fast-track nature of the project, construction began before the design was completed.  Baker’s first day on the site was July 5th, 2005.  From that point on Baker Electric’s Project Foremen, Brian Young and Dave Keicher, had their work cut out for them.  They had 81,000 sq/ft of office and 88,000 sq/ft of industrial space to complete in just five months.  They installed the two Kohler Stand-By generators and the paralleling switchgear, two MGE Uninterruptible Power Systems, and the Square D distribution equipment as well as Lite Control indirect lighting, all provided by 3E.  Additional background support for the project was handled by Account Manager, Chris Johnson, who is Baker’s primary point of contact for 3E.

The project, which at one time had as many as 46 electricians on it, was turned over to CitiGroup on December 15, 2005 only 24 weeks after the electrical work began.  Congratulations to CitiGroup, Clayco Construction, Baker Electric, and all those who played a role in achieving this aggressive goal.  Thank you to Chad Layland and Baker Electric for having the confidence to ask 3E and our manufacturers to participate in this challenging assignment.