COVER STORY
equipped with Bender hardware for power quality and residual current monitoring.
Managed services Combining the wide range of Bender hardware, digitisation, engineering knowhow, and extensive service capabilities can offer unique advantages in terms of supporting the electrical infrastructure of a hospital or medical facility. At the heart of this unique concept is the use of technologies to continuously monitor electrical systems and their connectivity. These monitoring technologies will look for developing faults in the system (including earth faults), monitor the electrical parameters such as harmonics/unbalance that may cause deterioration or failure of equipment, and capture energy usage. Through connectivity, software tools, and cloud-based analytics backed by reviewing data from Bender’s engineering team, actionable information can be delivered to customers enabling them to identify faulty equipment, plan infrastructure improvements, reduce energy usage, and make investment decisions for Net Zero transition and much more. IoT connectivity and full control of the technology equips Bender to handle instant alarm notifications and remotely diagnose and fix problems. Engineers need attend site only when they are required. Within the UK, Bender’s managed
service concept is being developed to help tackle two huge challenges faced by the NHS and shared by medical facilities and health authorities across Europe: ‘Smart hospitals and digitisation’ and ‘Transition to net zero’.
Smart hospitals and digitisation – NHS for tomorrow The UK NHS wants to provide a fully integrated data-led system with patient care at its heart. Adapting new technologies to provide digitally enabled care will lead to cost savings, improved staff efficiency, and reduced carbon emissions. Examples of how it will impact patient care include out-of-hospital care, NHS@Home, front line digitisation of records, digital interaction with patients, and remote consultations. A key enabler for smart hospitals and digitally enabled care is a reliable and sustainable electrical infrastructure. Greater electrical safety and availability in all areas (not just operating theatres) will have a direct impact on the patient care in the smart hospitals of the future. Electrical systems need to be designed and continuously monitored for maximum availability and data-led planned maintenance. The digitisation concept must also be
extended to the infrastructure. Any disconnection, even for regulatory periodic and inspection and testing, should be
IFHE DIGEST 2023
would contribute up to 2.3 per cent of the total required reduction in carbon emissions, with an upfront investment of £259 million paid back within two years, and a net annual saving of £120 million once all interventions are implemented by 2034.”1 New hospitals have energy efficiencies
Bender LintraxxTM Power Quality Device.
avoided and replaced with continuous monitoring. In today’s NHS, management of the electrical power infrastructure is mostly manual and reactive. Regulatory requirements for periodic inspection and testing are sometimes side-lined due to the conflict between the need to switch-off electrical systems for testing against the regulatory requirement, and keeping power on for optimum patient care. Poor maintenance can lead to more
faults and the need to switch off essential services to deal with urgent faults, directly impacting patient care. Estates departments are also currently more attuned to the reactive repair of the electrical faults as opposed to diagnostics and monitoring to deliver more planned maintenance.
Engineers can often identify
measurement parameters that indicate developing faults, and many modern devices have self-monitoring functionality with the capability for remote diagnostics. However, even where data is retrieved
and recorded, hospitals are challenged to convert the measured data from useful insights to actionable information. Traditional data science or data gathering software provides plotting and statistical information but a depth of engineering knowledge is required to make sense of the data.
Transition to net zero The NHS target is to reduce the CO2 emissions by 80 per cent for direct contributions by 2028 to 2032 and achieve a net zero by 2041. These targets are driven from an environmental perspective, but more effective use of technology may see further cost savings in the longer term. NHS Estates and Services can account
for up to 15 per cent of the total CO2 emissions. But most healthcare facilities do not have automatic energy measurement systems in place, or if they do, it is likely to be very basic with limited capability or benefit. The report Delivering a ‘net zero’ National Health Service on the efficient usage of NHS buildings states: “Intelligent, real-time energy monitoring and control, including the use of artificial intelligence,
built into them so latest technologies and energy monitoring may be included as a default. For existing hospitals, it is even more important that the data will not just deliver cost savings for the efficient use of power but, combined with the engineering know-how, can also help in choosing the correct investment strategy. For example, identifying high usage
areas on site can result in real actions to save energy. Energy consultancy can devise an effective net zero Investment (renewables) and site improvement strategy based on usage, demand, energy cost, equipment efficiency, infrastructure data, and the distributed network operator’s capacity. Integration of decision-making tools will help to prioritise improvements. Advanced and forward-looking electrical systems are the future and are already in place within some hospitals and clinical locations. But, in some cases, they are not being used effectively to deliver their full potential or – worse still – are switched off because they generate too many alarms. The huge challenge facing hospital
maintenance teams is too often underestimated and it is easy for maintenance teams to feel overloaded with information yet without the resources to use that information to its best advantage. Bender’s vision has always been to help hospitals deliver optimum patient care by supporting their maintenance teams with better technology. The opportunity to remotely monitor the health of hospital power system infrastructures and fix issues via internet and cloud connectivity before they become critical adds an exciting new dimension to meeting the challenge of resilient and problem-free power provision in healthcare locations.
Reference 1
https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/wp- content/uploads/sites/51/2022/07/B1728- delivering-a-net-zero-nhs-july-2022.pdf.
Bender UK Low Mill Business Park Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 9EE Tel: 44(0) 1229 480123 Fax: 44(0) 1229 480345 Tel: +353 1 5060611
www.bender-uk.com
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