Primary Children's Medical Center's move to the University of Utah campus, scheduled for Feb. 26, has been postponed due to problems with the transformer for the new building's heating system.
Hospital Administrator Donald R. Poulter said the move may have to be postponed for four to six weeks, but "the delay is not going to hurt anything."According to Poulter, most of the electricity for the new hospital is to be supplied by a pair of 650-kilowatt cogenerators.
Cogeneration, the recycling of waste heat to produce electricity, is expected to supply 55 percent of the hospital's energy needs. The system was designed so that power in the hospital's critical-care areas will be supplied by cogeneration, which won't be affected by power failures.
Poulter said experts are seeking a solution to the equipment problem. "In order to get other systems programmed and tested you have to have the cogeneration system up and going. When we discovered we have this problem, we decided to delay the move."