POWER AND ENERGY
all else fails, your hospital power will be operational. Round table discussions, covering site upgrades,
extensions, additional site requirements, especially when undertaken on site, are extremely beneficial before any budgets are set. Fuel polishing is another area that benefits a limited site budget. Diesel fuel and especially HVO does accumulate microbial debris over time. By regular fuel tank fuel polishing, it reduces the risk of engine failure as well as avoiding the need to replace ‘useable’ fuel with new costly fuel. Emissions is another new area requiring attention. Although not a priority on every site, regulations are changing all the time. Retrofitting emission controls is an expensive undertaking. We warn all clients before committing to onerous emission target, evaluate the costs. Anything can be improved, but with limited NHS resources, it becomes a balancing act between needs and wants. Avoid the cost of bringing load banks to site. Use the building load to load up your standby generator. Such load run tests prevent ‘wet stacking’ which is harmful to any generator.
What about future planning and projects?
As the power requirements for every hospital is increasing, and the more technical equipment is requiring more and more power, it is inevitable that power management will be stretched. Finer tolerances between benefits and loses become a facilities managers daily tightrope walk. One useful approach, is to accommodate centralised
UPS systems that cover a whole building, or buildings, rather than random UPS systems across multiple floors. These allow a ‘UPS’ circuit ring to provide clear power from RED sockets. Such a UPS solution would have redundancy, of N+1 or N+2 and can be located within the building, or external as a containerised solution – a single point of control and servicing. As an alternative, the benefits of a UPS containerised solution, are endless. For one, these are self-contained. All the air conditioning, switchgear, bypass switches, separate battery rooms and security all arrive on site complete.
No requirement to lose valuable building space. Better still, should the NHS campus undergo a transformation in the years to come, then these can be disconnected and relocated across the campus with minimal disruption. No building works required. De-commission, upload and relocate, then reconnect and ready to provide power protection once more. It is an asset that that keeps on giving for years to come.
Conclusion A comprehensive approach across essential hospital infrastructure will identify areas of potential weakness in any critical power protection systems. Ensure all service records are up to date and any needed replacement parts have been installed. Verify the life cycle of all UPS and battery solutions are within manufacturers guidelines. Regularly carry out ‘black building’ tests. Check all remote monitoring systems are actually connected and providing live data.
Critical power system.
March 2026 Health Estate Journal 67
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