- Outages in the electrical grid, widely known as “blackouts”, become significant risks in any field of application.
- The consequences of lack of electrical energy in hospitals can be irreversibly tragic: surgical equipment, operating rooms, laboratories and respirators, which are so often discussed these days, would stop working until the electrical grid is re-established.
Electricity generators are emergency devices that remain in the background, “watching out” for outages, faults or interruptions in the grid occurring. They carry out constant monitoring, and if any shortcoming or anomaly is detected, the device starts up automatically.
The switchboards with which these installations are equipped allow the passage of current from the generator to be shut off when the grid is re-established, and vice versa.
Although all of these installations have always had a maximum commitment, COVID-19 has led us to focus on the healthcare field, where ICUs and hospital centres are experiencing unprecedented pressure. These installations operate at full capacity and need invisible assets that guarantee their function when failure is not an option. Among these assets are generator sets.
The role of generator sets, so that everything keeps working without anyone noticing anything
Generator sets can offer different levels of response depending on the commitment of the intended application. Thus, generators equipped with synchronisation modules are also capable of overcoming the “second zero”; that is, avoiding interruption of the electricity supply after re-establishment of the electrical grid.
In any case, generator sets must offer a maximum level of reliability, which allows us to trust that the generator set will start up if it is necessary.
To have the maximum guarantees, it is essential to use the highest quality mechanical, electrical and electronic components, endorsed by manufacturers of renowned prestige.
This must be accompanied by a rigorous quality control in the production and testing process with performance and operation tests on the machine. These guarantees can only be offered by manufacturers that have proven experience in installations of these characteristics and whose products and services are evaluated and certified in accordance with quality standards, such as the renowned ISO 9001.
Dagartech has designed and developed numerous customised projects in the health sector, provided with predictive and preventive maintenance services. Among these are the project carried out for the Hospital San Eloy in Barakaldo, which guarantees the supply of one of the regional hospitals of reference in the Basque Country, and the project recently completed in the Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory of the Gregorio Marañón University General Hospital in Madrid.
A 600 kVA Dagartech generator set guarantees the energy supply of Hospital San Eloy in Barakaldo
San Eloy is the regional hospital centre of reference for the towns of Barakaldo and Sestao, with over 135,000 registered inhabitants.
This hospital has 6 operating rooms and a 112 bed service level, where around 7,500 patients are admitted each year. At this centre, around 6,600 surgical interventions are carried out each year, and over 39,000 people visit its emergency room, with over 160,000 people attended at appointments. To meet these service levels, the hospital has a staff of 820 professionals.
The needs of the hospital, the starting point of the project
The main requirement that the Technical Management of the project proposed was that the device designed was to be activated automatically in the event of a power failure, offering the additional benefit of ‘eliminating the second zero’ when power was re-established.
Other requirements associated with this project were:
- That the emergency power of the generator was rated at 600 kVA.
- Having flexible and comprehensive event monitoring and comprehensive display of engine information. Among other aspects, this functionality facilitates agility and ease in maintenance work on the generator set.
- Guaranteeing more than 8 hours’ autonomy (operating at 100% charge).
The Dagartech solution: a fail-safe generator set
To fulfil all proposed requirements, Dagartech designed and developed a customised generator set with power of 650 kVA, capable of detecting any anomaly or outage of the electrical grid, starting up automatically and providing energy to the hospital.
Dagartech energy for the Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory of Gregorio Marañón Hospital
The Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid is in charge of providing medical staff information on physiological vital signs and analytical data. This laboratory constitutes a key and essential service within the hospital, providing coverage to its corresponding primary care department and specialised centres. Its portfolio of services encompasses numerous knowledge areas, among which are those as important as Haematology, Immunochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics.
The Gregorio Marañón Clinical Analysis Service attends to around 320,000 patients each year, generating a total of 4,500,000 assessments. This laboratory makes up 83% of the total laboratory activity of this hospital.
The needs of the laboratory, quiet emergency energy
The laboratory needed to have a generator set for grid failure, which also included superior soundproofing systems.
Some of the requirements associated with this project were:
- Having emergency power rated at 450 kVA.
- Having a reliable device that guaranteed a rapid response and a stable energy supply in case of potential outages in the electrical grid.
- Incorporating superior soundproofing systems with which to minimise the noise levels of the machine when it is operating.
- Guaranteeing more than 8 hours’ autonomy (operating at 100% charge).
The Dagartech solution: a reliable and especially quiet generator set
On this occasion, Dagartech designed and developed a 500 kVA customised generator set with residential exhaust of 50 dB(A) and heavy masses in the alternator.
