RESILIENCE AND PREPAREDNESS
The ‘silent crisis’ of hospitals’ energy security
Nigel Thomas, National Specification and Projects Sales manager at ABB, discusses the importance of hospitals and other healthcare facilities having the most resilient possible power infrastructure and – where existing systems are not optimal – upgrading them to minimise interruption to clinical activity in the event of disruptive incidents such as ‘blackouts’ and ‘brownouts’. He explores the benefits of ‘robust, digital-ready, and low-maintenance’ energy solutions.
As they attempt to decarbonise and electrify their operations, hospitals across the UK and the rest of the world are facing an underreported crisis: energy insecurity. Ageing infrastructure, the shift away from fossil fuels, extreme weather events, cyberattacks, and surging demand for power-hungry medical technology, are individually formidable. Together, they are creating a perfect storm for the healthcare sector which calls for decisive action. For a modern hospital, continuous power is a matter of life and death. With an average energy intensity of approximately 74 kWh per square foot, hospitals consume up to 2.5 or 3 times more energy per square metre than commercial buildings. This is because on top of the usual lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, critical equipment such as ventilators, dialysis machines, and infusion pumps, and diagnostic imaging, also rely on uninterrupted electricity.
High cost of power outage for hospitals According to ABB’s recent report, The Future of Healthcare is open, every minute of a hospital power outage can already cost upwards of US $7,900. The biggest costs of electrical downtime, however, are deteriorating patient outcomes. When those start to falter, lives hang in the balance. The logic is clear: hospitals must urgently upgrade their resilience. This means they must reinforce their supply, safeguard their back-ups, improve monitoring, and build in the agility to evolve with changing patient needs. At ABB, we believe a key part of hospitals’ resilience lies in the adoption of open protocol platforms. These are intelligent, digitally secure, and vendor-agnostic systems that can adapt to uncertainty without disruption. In times of crisis, open protocol energy reliability could save lives. Current NHS England guidance for Emergency
Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) makes business continuity expectations clear. Based on The Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the framework requires NHS bodies to demonstrate that they can deal with disruptive incidents while maintaining their services. However, recent real-world events reveal a more fragile reality. In January 2025, Storm Eowyn caused a power failure at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert in Scotland. Although no patients were harmed, the hospital was forced to rely on its emergency battery reserves for around 70 minutes after the back-up generator failed to engage immediately. Investigations are ongoing, but the incident showed existential vulnerabilities to extreme weather conditions, even in nations with high-quality healthcare infrastructure.
September 2025 Health Estate Journal 81
Blackout’s impact Likewise, a blackout at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth in late 2024 forced staff to cancel procedures and close the Emergency Department to new admissions. The incident even disrupted phone lines, and left patients and staff unable to call in either direction. It has been reported that door malfunctions meant staff were effectively ‘locked in’ the building overnight. These are just some of the many power incidents, minor and major, that the NHS has commented on directly. Many more are not reported on. Elsewhere, Europe’s largest blackout in decades –
affecting Spain, Portugal, and parts of France – left hospitals without internal communications and out-of-order lifts. For healthcare staff, the power outage meant routine procedures quickly came to a halt as they shifted their focus to urgent medical needs. Hospitals turned to generators to maintain open
Emergency Departments, and could perform only the most time-sensitive surgeries. Dialysis treatments were delayed, leading to shortened sessions in some cases. Across the two countries, healthcare workers were especially concerned about the risk to vaccines, which need continuous refrigeration. In Portugal, some clinics successfully transported their vaccine supplies to a nearby
The ABB team at Helsinki University Hospital, which recently adopted ABB’s transformer-sensing and asset monitoring solution to reduce shutdowns and physical inspection requirements.
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