Imagine your loved one is ‘under the knife” on the operating table at a major hospital. Surrounded by the latest health care expertise and high-tech medical componentry, the Doctors’ are keeping all vital signs active. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a power blackout. The main grid has failed. With no electricity, the life support systems will fail.
It’s this type of worst-case scenario that hospitals do everything they can to avoid. Yet as the national power-grid infrastructure continues to age – and with unpredictable weather systems often bearing down with massive force – it’s vital to plan for worst case scenarios.
At the very least, if a hospital suffers power failure, it would cause many essential health procedures and operations to be cancelled. With ambulances being diverted too, it can cause havoc across the regional health system. This highlights the critical dependence – for medical environments – on a clean, uninterrupted power supply.
This dependence is driven by two power vulnerabilities. The first relates to the use of sensitive electronic equipment for operations, and for patient monitoring and treatment. The second vulnerability arises from the essential role of IT and communications equipment to manage patient records, schedule appointments, allocate resources and perform other administrative functions.
Yes, in medical environments, power supply can be crucial to life. That’s why hospital power infrastructures must be compliant to set standards. Every hospital must display power integrity and continuity throughout different power failure scenarios.
The standard applies to electrical installations in medical locations, to ensure the safety of patients and medical staff. At all medical locations – where isolated power is installed – all of the power for ‘life support equipment’ must be restored within seconds of a power interruption. In fact, certain microprocessor-controlled equipment may require a ‘no-break’ power supply.
FG Wilson generators are a reliable choice for standby power solutions
A reliable standby generator – correctly installed with complementary control system – can successfully deliver the no-break power capability that is required. A power solution that is truly resilient and sufficient for a medical centre’s needs should comprise a control system and standby generator that are always working in partnership.
By protecting all the sensitive medical, IT and communications equipment from the dangers of supply power disturbances, Allight has gained a hard-earned reputation as the specialists in planning and installing critical power solutions for hospitals and medical centres. As the exclusive distributors of the industry-leading FG Wilson range of generators, and with many years of experience, Allight was recently engaged to upgrade an existing 800Kva generator control system for a major hospital in regional NSW.
Allight Customer Support General Manager, explained that “the hospital had nearly suffered a complete black-out scenario when their existing generator and control system had previously failed to operate during a power outage.
“It was the worst-case scenario for a hospital and they needed a reliable back-up power solution fast. The Allight Service Support approach is to work consultatively with the client to develop the best solution.
“This involved conducting numerous site visits with extensive testing of the circuits and ensuring the control identifications were in place prior to any works being undertaken” said the Customer Support General Manager
“Working closely with a professional electrical contractor, our upgrade involved the installation of a generator control system which could synchronize the generator power with the main supply for seamless coverage to the hospital’s critical infrastructure. Even more, the control system needed to integrate with the existing local SCADA system, and the upgrade had to happen without any impact to the hospital power supply” he explained.
In the end, two acoustically compliant FG Wilson Generators – with excellent fuel efficiency capabilities and correspondingly low emission outputs – were supplied to support the site. The units chosen for the job were a fully synchronised 500kva and 350Kva.
In addition, to provide superior power-supply redundancy, a manual ‘change-over’ switch was installed to allow the hospital to easily select between their normal generator and an emergency rental backup.
“As part of our extended scope offering, we also provided a full suite of commissioning and engineering drawings to support the hospital’s power supply system. The site’s power had never been properly commissioned or documented. So, our team collaborated with the site technicians and facilitated a streamlined hand-over. We were thrilled to exceed our client’s expectations in both safety and efficiency, delivering a complete upgrade on schedule without any impact on the hospital power supply” said the GM proudly.
Allight specialise in the supply, installation and maintenance of FG Wilson diesel power generation systems. We offer both emergency back-up and prime power applications across the entire industrial and commercial sector. And we help our clients by providing a professional care plan and regular service schedule.
With a range of robust and compact diesel-powered units available, there’s an FG Wilson Generator Set to suit your needs. Every unit is designed for optimal performance in even the harshest conditions and our design and engineering team can custom-configure your generator to support a range of complex solutions in critical applications.
For more information about our complete range of generators solutions, visit our website or speak to one of our power generation experts on 1300 ALLIGHT (1300 255 444).
