ENERGY
Resilient power strategy in an evolving landscape
Andy Towse, product quotes manager at DPS explores key considerations for estates managers designing sustainable power strategies.
Hospital power demands have risen steeply in recent years as widespread adoption of advanced medical equipment, computerised systems, and the electrification of critical services such as hot water, temperature control, ventilation, and filtration have increased electricity consumption. With experts predicting that AI, medical robotics, and the large-scale electrification of healthcare estates will double demand for power in the next 10 years, many hospitals are now reassessing their power strategies to ensure they have the energy they need to deliver services effectively and achieve ambitious Net Zero targets.
Increased demand for energy leads to a greater requirement for standby power to underpin the hospital’s essential systems. When it comes to power resilience, hospitals need to have enough energy capacity in reserve to safeguard operational stability and power life-critical technologies in the event of a fault or outage within the mains supply.
In most cases, standby power is supplied by generators
and UPS (uninterruptible power supply) technologies that are programmed to distribute electricity to essential services in the event of interruption or failure of the mains supply. When it comes to designing an effective emergency backup system, it is vital to consider the organisation’s whole-site power network alongside its operational philosophy and priorities. This means identifying the hospital’s essential systems, usually linked to life safety, that need to be protected first. If a hospital experiences a failure of the mains supply, the UPS seamlessly transitions power to a battery backup to support the critical loads of the hospital before the generator comes online. The generator then takes over and supplies power to the estate’s essential systems for the duration of the power outage, distributing energy to equipment and processes around the site.
The right levels of capacity Not only do emergency generators provide power, but they also deliver exactly the right levels of capacity into the site system in a way that prioritises the most critical elements of the operation. The technology is fully integrated into and synchronised with the hospital’s wider power network in terms of voltage and frequency, and energy is distributed in a carefully planned sequence, with life critical loads such as life support and intensive care equipment, ventilation and filtration technologies, lighting and heating powered first before non-essential loads are staged. It is important that power is applied to the network in a sequence like this to ensure safe and
sustainable loading. In this way, we can protect the most essential equipment and services as a priority while also overcoming limitations due to ageing technology and infrastructure. Backup generator systems range from small canopy units to large units housed in purpose-built containers that provide over 2000 kVA of power and weigh 35 to 40 tonnes. They typically provide a minimum of 72 hours of power, with large scale systems delivering up to 200 hours of estate-wide capacity. Every emergency power solution we design is unique
to the energy and infrastructure requirements of the estate, with considerations for space, noise, and access restrictions. A generator that needs to be installed in a relatively small plant room for example can be designed as a modular structure and built to fit through a narrow doorway before being assembled within the space. Where a generator must be located close to patient accommodation, we design a sound-proofed enclosure to house it in. Many healthcare estates use multiple generator units, particularly on existing sites where available space is limited. The generators are programmed to operate on a single network and synchronised to work together, which means they can supply combined power of up to 6-10MVA – enough to serve a small town. On new-
Open-set generators can be dismantled and reassembled in situ, making them ideal for locations with restricted space or access.
Increased demand for energy leads to a greater requirement for standby power to underpin the hospital’s essential systems.
November 2026 Health Estate Journal 39
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