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Big ships need big power—and seven new high-voltage kiosks for CFB Esquimalt will provide just that to the base’s B Jetty, under construction to accommodate the fleet’s new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS).

The power demands for the new infrastructure have been a key part of planning for over five years—with the project team recognizing that the power/voltage drops they experience on other jetties wouldn’t be sufficient for the new facility.

The need to meet this need safely led to the design and development of seven 2500KVA 12.7kV-460V transformers with safe electrical distribution and separation, power metering and ground fault detection systems.

“It basically allows us to safely run high voltage right out to the point of utilization,” said Steven Swonnell, ������Ƶ Coordinator, Construction Services at CFB Esquimalt.

Designing and building the kiosks has been an intensive process that tapped into latest technologies.

“The whole process has been pretty state of the art,” said Swonnell. “Usually, you get a contractor with drawings and that’s your chance to review and make your changes—but here, we built in the requirement to build a model,” said Swonnell.

Contractors Pomerleau, Black and McDonald, and RIC Power built a 3D Building Information Model (BIM) which included virtual reality so the review team could get a sense of how it felt to move in the space. They could open doors and walk inside and around the virtual kiosk—leading to some important improvements to the design.

“It was a fantastic process,” said Swonnell.

All the kiosks have been delivered to Esquimalt now and the first one was landed on the Jetty in May 2023. The next two are scheduled for early August.