ELECTRICAL RESILIENCE


Above: Quartzelec says its recent work at Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop ‘demonstrates how elements of a hospital’s electrical infrastructure can be completely modernised to meet future demand’.


Right: Much of the Bassetlaw Hospital complex was built in the mid-1970s using RAAC. Despite the absence of an imminent threat to the structures, the Trust decided to take pre-emptive action to eliminate the RAAC materials.


to all locations. Part of the strategy was to have standby generators connected to the LV switchboards at various temporary locations, providing primary power as and when needed.


‘Not without its challenges’ The programme was not without its challenges. The Maternity ward required a brand new LV sub-station, but with no space available within the ground floor of the building, the solution was to construct it in an adjacent courtyard. Council planning consent for this first needed to be secured, however. Groundworks and construction works – including the moving of existing LV cabling, and all new enclosures being installed – also needed to be carried out; all before any of the necessary electrical works and installation of the new switchgear could start. “As the works affected critical parts of the hospital infrastructure (including the Energy Centre, theatres, A&E, and the Maternity Unit), detailed planning and negotiation with NHS stakeholders was


required to agree the required outages and contingency resilience required during each changeover. The works followed a critical path with HV and LV plant replacements,” explained Douglas McGregor (Electel Systems Design), who led the ‘in house’ NHS Project Design team. “Extensive testing and verification of the existing and new infrastructure was performed to reduce risk and outage durations. Thanks to the professionalism and aptitude of our chosen service partners, the entire project was completed on time and on budget, but more importantly it has helped increased NHS resilience, capability, maintenance, and capacity, to the parts of the electrical infrastructure that were upgraded. We established a great working relationship with Quartzelec during delivery of the project.” Over recent decades advanced


technologies and working practices have meant that new solutions have had to be developed and integrated into existing hospital infrastructure. Switching to LED lighting has delivered


many advantages to hospitals, thanks to reduced energy consumption and longer lifespan, which helps make savings on the maintenance schedule, and in almost all cases LED lighting was an easy adaption to roll out. However, more technically advanced system changes bring with them their own HV and LV network challenges that need to be safely and practically resolved. More sophisticated diagnostic and


Inspecting LV switchgear at a hospital in north-west England.


62 Health Estate Journal September 2024


treatment equipment often result in increased demand for power in particular areas. Even the increased use of computer systems adds strain to what is often an already overstretched IT network and power distribution infrastructure. Many hospitals have adopted local solar power generation, or integrated Combined Heat and Power (CHP) solutions, to improve their ‘green’ credentials, while


simultaneously reducing operational costs. These bring benefits, but also their own technical challenges – the ramifications of which need to be fully addressed. Even adding a helipad to a hospital, its structural requirements aside, is not without its associated electrical supply issues. Obtaining expert advice from external


sources is often a more cost-effective solution in the long-run, compared with trying to use what is often an already stretched in-house team, even if the team’s overheads are already covered. External experts like ourselves not only bring with us critical knowledge and experience from other NHS sites, but also a fresh perspective, and we can often envisage, and therefore compensate for, what could be an ‘unseen’ and potentially more costly problem further down the line.


The New Hospital Programme However, it is not just ageing HV and LV electrical systems and infrastructure that cause NHS Trusts to struggle. Back in 2020 the Government committed to building 40 new hospitals in England2 to address issues with the capacity, age, and condition, of parts of the NHS estate. While a number of these are already under construction, or have recently been completed, the anticipated target completion date of 2030 has already started to slip, and new replacement and expansion schemes are still in the discussion and development process. In 2023, seven existing hospitals were also identified as being at immediate risk, and were thus added to the ‘build programme’, due to the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC),3 which when introduced was deemed an innovative building material, but is now proving problematic. These healthcare facilities were prioritised due to the safety risk they posed, and a growing number of others have also been identified as needing urgent remedial action. Likewise,


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