Energy management systems for hospitals in Gaza-strip

Abstract

This paper presents the general system of energy management in Al-Shifa' Hospital, as the largest medical complex in Gaza-strip, and the existing challenges to supply the critical facilities in that hospital which is seriously affected by the frequent power outages. Additionally, the presented work highlights the problem of power outage in Gaza-Strip as an example of the regions which are in dire need of humanitarian actions. It encounters serious electrification problems and frequent power failures. In order to propose an encouraging and realistic solution, the major challenges in performing an effective energy management program in such sensitive environments like hospitals are surveyed. As a contribution to the development projects of hospitals, this paper presents a PV/storage system as an alternative power supply to the conventional diesel generators. System design and associated costs of its utilization are illustrated. Despite of the necessity and vital role of the critical loads in hospitals which cannot be compromised with the costs, conventional cash-flow indicates that utilizing PV systems (instead of diesel generators) for typical critical loads in Gaza's hospitals is promising and more sustainable. Such a design can be transferred to other areas which suffer from frequent power failures and depend on conventional backup systems for long periods.