BSD Builders Achieves Major Engineering Milestone at Scripps Mercy Hospital Hillcrest
Design-build team navigates 117,500 pounds of microturbine technology down a 200-foot, 17% grade to install 2 megawatts of Cogeneration.
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — June 17, 2026 — BSD Builders, Inc. recently achieved a pivotal milestone in a complex, 18-month energy infrastructure project with the successful delivery of two massive Capstone C1000 microturbines at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest.
The installation brings 2 megawatts of supplemental power to the facility, but getting the equipment to its permanent home behind the hospital’s central energy plant required a masterclass in logistics: navigating the two units and the electrical gear, weighing a combined 117,500lbs, down a steep 200-foot, 17% grade. The successful placement required months of complex coordination, custom structural engineering, and precision field execution.
“This milestone was our first opportunity to truly see a year and a half of planning, engineering, and coordination begin to take physical shape,” said Jeff Blair, Co-Founder and CEO of BSD Builders, Inc. “This project has been a unique and rewarding puzzle to solve due to the severe site constraints. Moving 47,000-pound units and their associated equipment down that kind of incline forced our team to think outside the box to deliver a customized structural and logistical solution.”
The newly positioned infrastructure, which also includes a main switchboard, a new electrical transformer, and a 12 kV medium-voltage switch, serves as the backbone for an incredibly efficient cogeneration system developed by the design-build team. Advanced heat recovery modules have been installed on top of the turbines to capture waste heat from the power generation process, providing virtually all the hospital’s heating and hot water needs.
The upgraded system introduces advanced “island mode” capabilities, establishing a new level of resiliency and energy security for the hospital.
“This technology is a game changer, first and foremost because of the resiliency piece,” said Ryan Peña, Project Manager, Corporate Facilities at Scripps Health. “If there are natural disasters in the area and the utility happens to shut off the power or there’s an interruption to the electrical grid, the facility is still producing two megawatts of its own electricity when the grid would normally be shut down. It’s another layer of protection and redundancy.
“Seeing these units arrive is a big milestone. Now is the fun part, because now we get to start connecting it to the hospital.”
With the heavy equipment safely positioned on the pads, BSD Builders has transitioned into the final phases of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural systems integration, with startup, testing, and final approvals on track to be completed by the end of the year.
