Steeped in rich history, it’s an understatement that Los Alamos National Laboratory is an important customer for Sanbros Corp.

Hands down, “Los Alamos is our top priority,” said David Sanchez Sr., owner of the Alcalde, N.M.-based electrical contractor. “This is something we plan to have forever as a vendor.”

Sanbros Corp., which Sanchez said has about 40 electricians, began working at Los Alamos in 2025 with a contract for low­-voltage data and fiber optics. But Sanchez worked as an electrician and electrical inspector there from 1994–2008.

To say working at Los Alamos is strict is likely another understatement, Sanchez said, whose son David Jr. is a project manager for the company.

“As far as actual installation, safety is second to none,” Sanchez said. “We’ll evaluate any possible situation that could arise and make a document explaining what we’re going to do. We have to create a procedural document [regarding] any equipment, lockout/tagout, penetrations, scaffold use … any potential safety issues.”

That’s not all. Due to the Buy American Act, which requires federal agencies such as Los Alamos to procure domestic materials and products, Sanchez said it’s crucial to procure not just any product. And then there’s another matter of much importance.

“Obviously, clearances,” he said. “You have to have security clearances; heavy-duty background checks is probably the biggest thing.”

Of course, not every electrical contracting firm that works in this area is going to have to have the same experience, but what is common across all of these facilities is power that is always on. Period.

Power must stay on

“When it comes to powering research and life sciences labs, always-on power is a must,” said Justin Carron, director of buildings and campuses for Eaton, Beachwood, Ohio. “Tomorrow’s breakthroughs depend on today’s energy resilience, which requires the highest levels of power quality. From incoming utility power to HVAC systems and sensitive research equipment, ensuring electrical infrastructure reliability and redundancy is vital to maintain data integrity, regulatory compliance and product safety.”

Hence the importance of backup power systems, he said, which provide essential functionality, protecting data and investments in research and development. Such systems ensure continued operation and around-the-clock protection of critical equipment, emergency lighting, HVAC, communication systems and more—basically everything that matters if there is a power outage, planned or not.

To that end, Eaton’s automatic transfer switches for generators provide a redundant source of power during routine maintenance procedures. Arc-quenching magnum PXR LV switchgear reduces incident energy to a level where the switchgear will survive an arc flash, while providing enhanced safety and minimal equipment downtime.

Power transfer

At NECA 2025 Chicago, ABB, Cary, N.C., launched the SACE Emax 3 air circuit breaker. Bill Stewart, ABB’s product marketing director for smart power, said it had potential for labs and life sciences facilities from the standpoint of seamless power transfer. Because in the world of high-tech research, where millions of dollars are at stake with shrinking timelines, seconds count.

“Emax 3 gives you the capability to perform an automatic transfer operation utilizing circuit breakers,” Stewart said, offering an example. “You have a main utility source and a backup generator. When the main utility source fails, you need your backup generator to come on and restore power. The time it takes to power up a generator and restore power is dependent on several factors and varies wildly, but typically takes anywhere between 5–12 seconds. The UPS is designed into the system to hold power for this brief interval, giving the generator time to ramp up to speed. 

“The advantage of Emax 3 is in matching the transfer speed with the generator power timing. With Emax 3, you no longer need a microcontroller to adjust the timing sequence and command the opening and closing of the circuit breakers,” he said.

But there is another important facet of the Emax 3. It’s the world’s first air circuit breaker with Security Level 2 IEC 62443 cybersecurity certification. Let’s face it, there are bad actors in the world that would love to shut down, or even destroy, critical research samples. The Emax 3 is on the front lines of protection.

Stewart also said the Emax 3 is designed with the ability to be field-upgraded. One can purchase the functionality required at the time of installation, and expand capabilities as the need arises.

“You can add data logging and power quality measuring capabilities when needed,” he said. “Upgrade capabilities of the Emax 3 even include the ability to add ground-fault protection and digitally upgrade the rating plug by simply purchasing and downloading an upgrade package.”

Data rules

Data is king in our world, and John Partin, motion and robotics business development manager for Schneider Electric, Boston, said that in the industrial internet of things, there is a complex web of data from individual products, such as MasterPact circuit breakers, SmartX IP controllers and PowerLogic relays.

That’s a lot of power system data being generated. In Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure for Life Sciences, Partin said, that data is funneled to edge control, including SmartX Edge Servers and EcoStruxure interfaces for building operation, power monitoring and IT. From there, it’s on to apps, analytics and services such as EcoStruxure power advisor, building advisor and asset advisor.

“It’s keeping [data] out of silos and read and synthesized into something that’s valuable,” Partin said.

Lighting controls

The nature of the work being done in research laboratories and life sciences facilities, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, make them highly sensitive places. Lighting and lighting control is obviously necessary, but integrating them into the no-compromise space of a clean room is something Leviton, Melville, N.Y., has addressed.

“If you’re working in a clean room, you need to be able to maintain seals,” said Justin Knott, Leviton’s director of construction and technical sales. “Lighting is one of the places we get the most leakage at, how they are able to sit in the ceiling, the acoustic tile. That becomes a place where dirty air leaks.”

The solution?

“Being able to create a fixture that allows us to seal around the edges, but the entire fixture itself, where you don’t have the air passing back and forth, and also putting in a UVA system that will disinfect the air is a great way to manage cross-contamination,” Knott said. 

An example is the Certolux CRUi recessed cleanroom luminaire, which is certified for ISO Class 3-8 clean rooms and IP65-certified for dust and water resistance.

Fire suppression

Don’t forget fire suppression. Mark Anderson, regional business development manager, North America at Kidde, Mebane, N.C., walked through the company's ModuLaser multichannel aspirating smoke detectors, which are designed for research labs, clean rooms and the pharma and biotech space.

“That’s a hot vertical right now,” Anderson said. “In those environments, you want to be able to spot a fire because it gets out of hand, ideally in its incipient stages. This is active, constantly drawing air in and searching for smoke. It makes this much quicker to detect any type of a fire situation.”

The bottom line for electrical contractors, Partin said, is to be aware of the products and connectivity at research labs and life sciences facilities and know what’s coming. For example, there is a renewed focus on sustainability, which is why some facilities are building their own wastewater facilities and will require products such as programmable logic controllers, or PLCs.

“California is going to be first, and then New England,” he said. “They are going to have their own wastewater facilities before their wastewater can go into the normal wastewater facilities.”

stock.adobe.com / Romolo Tavani