Taranaki Base Hospital commissions new emergency energy centre

One of the two new 1.8MVa generators installed at the new Taranaki Base Hospital energy centre.

Two new generators mean Taranaki Base Hospital will stay connected if its main electrical supply is cut or disrupted.

The two new 1.8 megavolt-ampere (MVa) generators have been installed in the hospital’s new purpose-built energy centre, which can run for 72 hours before refuelling.

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora Taranaki emergency management lead Cameron Grant-Fargie said the generators have been tested and are all set to kick into gear and restore power to the hospital within seconds, ensuring all clinical services can continue as normal with more power capacity than the campus needs to operate.

“It’s great news for the province to have the Taranaki Base Hospital energy centre up and running. It has been designed and built specifically to improve the overall resilience of the hospital’s campus-wide infrastructure and ensure a power supply to the hospital is always maintained, even in the event of a volcanic eruption. Considering there is a 50 per cent chance Taranaki Maunga will erupt within the next 50 years, it’s something we need to be prepared for.”

The commissioning of the energy centre has involved years of planning and collaboration from the whole Project Maunga Team, including Leighs Construction, Wells Instrument and Electrical, and the hospital’s on-site engineering team.

To test the generators and gain assurance they function and can successfully power the hospital, the power supply had to be completely disconnected, said Grant-Fergie.

“Disconnecting the power to a hospital is not something to be taken lightly. Before the testing, we undertook a huge amount of preparatory work to minimise any disruption to clinical care. This included working with all clinical units to examine and plan how they would deliver clinical care without power or by relying on large batteries as back-ups.”

Grant-Fergie said the testing went well.

“Just as planned, the hospital solely operated on power produced from our energy centre for 30 minutes. There was no disruption to acute surgeries or other sensitive clinical procedures.”

Historically, the hospital has comfortably operated on a single emergency generator. This had to be substantially upgraded for the new East Wing building scheduled to open in 2025, as the hospital’s overall power demand will increase significantly.

The existing generator will now be refurbished and installed alongside the two new generators in the energy centre to ensure the hospital will continue to always have greater generator capacity than what it needs to function.

“It’s reassuring to know that in the event of an emergency or an eruption, our hospital will be able to continue to function as normal, with powered equipment operating. In terms of a resilient health facility, we’re right up there.”