HOSPITALS IN NIGERIA ARE FAST REALIZING THE NEED TO CUT ELECTRICITY BILLS, AND SEND A POSITIVE ECO-FRIENDLY MESSAGE TO THE YOUNG Minds THEY NURTURE BY GOING SOLAR

The health care sector is a very important part of every nation. Lack of electricity in a health care facility can be life-threatening. Surgery risks increase when electricity is accessible but unreliable. The Nigeria power sector has suffered unending challenges that defiled all solutions. How do we manage this problem in our health sector? Many person would had still be alive today only if there was reliable power supply during a surgical section.

Here is a true life story of Prof. Ayobami, a senior lecturer from Ladoke Akintola University of Science and Technology (LAUTECH).

Prof Ayobami's pregnant wife was booked for a cesarean section at a private specialist hospital at ogbomosho, Oyo state, Nigeria.

Prof Ayobami stated that, during the c-section of his wife, there was need for an emergency laparotomy, during this stage, he noticed there was a seconds power cut out in the theater, so he enquired what just happened and one of the nurses told him to calm down, that PHCN had interrupted their power but their system had switched automatically to Solar energy, she went further to say there is no cause for alarm. The c-section lasted for several hours and it was a success as a new born baby boy was delivered by his beautiful wife.

The next morning, he later went to see the surgeon that carried out the surgery on his wife and was so happy and thanked him and he made mentioned of power switch he noticed at the theater, and the surgeon smiled and said, oh! we thank God prof, we've lost so many patients during c-sections in the past due to power issue, one bad experience we had was what propelled the hospital management to install a mini off grid solar power system in this hospital. It was a bitter experience, there was power interruption during an emergency surgery and the power Engineer made several attempts to start our diesel generator all to no avail, the generator keeps going off intermittently that one of our equipment even got damaged. Before we could get another alternative the patient had died. If there was power outage for a minute during that emergency laparotomy on your wife, there would had been complications that we may not had been able to handle.

THE SOLUTION

The surgeon went further to explain, one of our patients noticed how the hospital suffered power outages while he was admitted there, he recommended we switch to solar energy. “In the last three months, we have spent only #3,000 naira on petrol since we switched to solar,” said the surgeon. Getting the solar system up and running was pretty easy and straightforward according to him. After an energy audit and the paperwork was done, the actual installation of the system was completed in less than 24 hours.

Although our hospital has not completely gone off-grid, power from the grid is now back-up. “Today, for instance, our neighborhood has not received any power supply from the grid,” the surgeon stated. “But our hospital has constant power and it stands out in the area,” he concluded. The solar system is the hospital’s primary source of power while its petrol generator serves as the primary backup source ahead of power from the grid. “our engineers are always asking managements to service the generators so they don’t become faulty since we rarely use them now.” he added.

COST BENEFITS

Our hospital current solar system capacity is 8.4KW and it cost us about three million naira for outright purchase. The solar system comprises of 24 units of solar panels, an inverter, 8 massive batteries. When the batteries are fully charged they can last for about 4 days before they need a recharge and the sun is always there for us.

Before switching to this amazing technology called solar, we can stay a whole week without having power in the hospital from PHCN. It was really a sad experience, we had a 10kva diesel engine generator that we used daily then, we spent an average of Ten thousand naira (#10, 000) daily on diesel. That's over three hundred thousand naira (#300,000) Monthly aside the cost of servicing and other maintenance. When we checked our annual cost for the generator it was over four million naira (#4, 000,000), so we decided to give solar technology a try and the experience has been awesome.

HAPPY EMPLOYEES MAKES HAPPY CLIENTS....

Before switching to solar, generator noise brought discomfort to the hospital’s patients. Power outages also meant that patients had to stay without electricity sometimes. This could last a few minutes before the generator is turned on or hours if the generator is faulty. The cost involved in maintaining generators also affected the hospital’s income.

Since the hospital started using solar technology, it has had an average of 22 new patients every month. Patients spend a minimum of 9,000 naira at the hospital. “Some patients who are admitted ask if they can stay longer after we discharge them because of the reliable power supply,” the surgeon said. “The reason is simple, some of them are worried, they wouldn’t get such stable power when they return home which creates a stressful situation,” he concluded. There have also been cases of employees showing up at work when they were not on duty because of the stable power, some to charge their phones or laptop and to do a number of other things.

Initially, when this technology was introduced to us, our medical director frowned at it because of his uncles experience, according to him, his uncle spent about six hundred and eighty thousand to install a solar system at his residence. The system he got only supplied power when the sun was up and when the sun went down, power also went along with it. This made him doubtful about the solar technology until a team of expert came for an energy assessment and finally installed this system for us.

Using this solar system, there’s power whether the sun is up or not. “The only time we have had to buy petrol was when it rained for about 3 days. I bought petrol worth five thousand naira (5,000) naira to power the generator in order to charge the batteries for our solar system,” he said. “This has only happened once since we installed the system,” he concluded in a satisfactory tone.

The only challenge we had is that the solar system doesn't power our ACs. This has however made us smarter with managing our energy consumption. The management intend getting inverter ACs which the solar system can power conveniently. During the solar installation, the engineers had to carry out some load separation, our most used and emergency medical device were placed on the inverter so it doesn't switch off when in used incase of power interruption from the grid. Our total power consumption on with the solar is about 4kw.

Prof I must confess, I'm planning on setting up a small solar system in my home because of my children, they've been clamoring I install solar at our house after visiting me at work.

The surgeon went further to say that he believes this technology can also work perfectly well in schools, to give student and teachers an enabling learning and teaching environment.

Citizens are calling on government to find a lasting solution to the power problem in Nigeria, but the solution is better imagined than experienced. Fortunately, renewable energy (especially off-grid) presents a strong proposition to address the energy challenges. The surgeon went on and said "I encourage hospitals and schools to subscribe into this amazing solar technology because they are two of the critical sectors that have the most impact on lives and the economy.”

Prof. Abayomi was so wowed and was thankful to the hospital management's for subscribing into the solar technology which helped them carried a successful c-section on his wife the previous day. He finally requested for the contact of the Solar vendor that delivered the solar installation at the hospital. The surgeon asked him to visit their website ksksolarsystems.com or send a mail to Info@ksksolarsystems.com