by Josh Crotzer
Union County Residents have a new hospital to take care of their medical needs. At the same time, Broad River Electric Cooperative is now taking care of the electricity needs for Union Medical Center.
The facility, located on U.S. Highway 176, opened in February with an added layer of reliability from its power provider.
“We’re excited about serving the hospital because it’s a great thing for that community,” says Wes Allsbrook, chief strategy officer at Broad River Electric. “We knew we wanted to do something special given the critical nature of the hospital’s power requirements.”
At the core of Broad River Electric’s dependable service is an innovative automatic switch gear, the first of its kind within Broad River Electric’s system, which gives the hospital an alternate source of power in the event that the primary service is interrupted.
The automatic switch gear continuously monitors two distinct power sources provided by nearby transmission substations. If a disruption occurs—whether from severe weather, equipment malfunction or accidental damage—the system swiftly detects the issue and transitions power supply from the primary to a secondary source within approximately four seconds.
This rapid transition minimizes disruption to critical health care services. Although the hospital is equipped with a standby generator, the cooperative’s design specifically helps avoid unnecessary generator activation during brief outages, preserving resources and enhancing reliability.
“The automatic switch gear is tied into our central monitoring system, providing immediate notification of any issues and automatically taking corrective action,” says Allsbrook. “By the time we see an alert, the issue is often already resolved.”
While Broad River Electric has begun exploring similar “self-healing” technologies for other residential and commercial accounts, the Union Medical Center represents the co-op’s most advanced and vital implementation, given that uninterrupted power can truly be a matter of life or death.
As Union County continues to grow with new retail outlets such as Tractor Supply and other developments, the enhanced reliability provided by Broad River Electric is poised to support the area’s ongoing growth and quality of life.
“This is a step forward for us in utilizing this technology,” says Allsbrook. “We’ll continue to evolve as we do system improvements and improve reliability for our members.”
A new place to heal
The center of health care in Union County has moved four miles north up Furman Fendley Highway with the recently opened Union Medical Center, a part of the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. It replaces Wallace Thompson Hospital, which had served the community since 1921.
Services available at Union Medical Center include primary care, emergency care, imaging, outpatient care, pharmacy and labs.
The 99,600-square-foot, three-story facility is built on 48 acres and includes a quarter-mile paved walking trail that is available to the public.
Union Medical Center expects to serve approximately 60,000 patients annually.
Country music legend Dolly Parton, whose mother was born in Lockhart, donated $100,000 for a healing garden located at the main entrance.