County engineer reports juvenile detention and EOC generators installed; full-load tests scheduled

Jonathan Hernandez, the county engineer, updated the San Patricio County Commissioners Court on two ARPA-funded generator projects: a replacement generator at the juvenile detention center and a new generator at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

Hernandez said the juvenile detention generator contract cost was approximately $95,000 and the EOC generator contract cost approximately $278,000. He said the generators (identified in the record as the "color" brand) were installed, commissioned with a factory representative and that commissioning runs took about four to six hours. A smaller, more efficient generator replaced an older diesel unit at the juvenile facility; the county's staff removed the diesel and plans to recycle that equipment.

Hernandez described fuel and gas-line connections, transfer switches and that both generators were programmed to run a full-load exercise every two weeks on Sunday mornings. A timing delay on the transfer switch was reported as about nine seconds. Members of the court and staff discussed the nine-second delay and the role of battery backup systems to keep servers and critical equipment running through the switch.

Hernandez thanked county staff (including John Doria/Daugherty) and CenterPoint personnel for assistance during commissioning. The court did not take further action; the engineer said staff will pursue an enclosure for the EOC generator to protect it from debris.