Resilient power in hospitals: The S. Giovanni addolorata general hospital case study

Abstract

The hospital's electric power system is typically complex, with a round the clock, 365 days per year required mission. Although normally the supply of electricity is taken for granted, natural disasters and terrorist attacks remind us how dependent we are on electricity and how fragile the system can be. In order to cover such a topic, resilience has been defined as the ability of a system to reduce the chances of a shock, to absorb if it occurs and to recover quickly after a shock. The paper deals with the resilience of hospitals' electric power system. In particular, the way how actual hospitals are able to face power loss following a disaster and whether the typical power system's layout is adequately resilient is discussed. Finally, the case study of an 800-beds acute care general hospital in Rome that has started its path toward power resilience enhancement is illustrated. In particular, a new 190 kW PV system has been recently implemented at the hospital, thanks to a European financing, and some low-cost-measures, as adoptable on the actual power system's layout with the aim of cost-effectively increasing its resilience, have been identified.