The Kenai Peninsula Borough has approved awarding a contract to RESPEC, an Anchorage-based engineering consultant firm, for assessing system failure causes in South Peninsula Hospital’s essential electrical system.

The system, according to a Jan. 17 memorandum to Borough Mayor Peter Micciche, consists of generators, transfer switches, battery chargers, control systems and motorized circuit breakers as well as “related mechanical systems and appurtenances.”

The assessment contract follows the failure of the SPH system to come online during a major snowstorm in mid-December, which caused widespread power outages in Homer. The backup generator system’s failure caused a 90-minute total power outage at the main SPH facility and campus, Homer News previously reported.

Engineering support provided by RESPEC will document the system failure causes and provide recommendations for resolution, the memo states.

Currently, according to a fee proposal submitted to the borough by RESPEC engineers, SPH is renting a portable generator trailer to provide emergency backup power for the hospital. The proposal also notes that RESPEC can start on the assessment “nearly immediately” after receiving notice to proceed.

Included as part of the mayor’s report in the Feb. 4 KPB assembly meeting, the contract was approved by Micciche on Jan. 20.

Find more information at kpb.legistar.com.