Powering up the generators
Wellington Hospital is satisfied it can maintain power after a big quake even as new information shows its generators are routinely failing.
Wellington Hospital is satisfied it can maintain power after a big quake, even as new information shows its generators are routinely failing.
A Victoria University engineering professor believes the generators – meant to run the hospital after a quake or other outage – have a one-in-four chance of not running at all and a 50-50 chance of having a complete start-up.
One of the hospital’s four generators has been decommissioned since ‘‘catastrophic’’ failure in 2015, an official information response from Capital & Coast District Health Board shows.
Between the remaining three, there have been problems in many of the past 12 test runs.
The board had no records to show when the generators last had a major overhaul.
It confirmed the hospital’s lifecrucial and some emergency equipment could run on battery for 141 minutes if needed. New batteries, that arrived recently, would increase that to about 200 minutes.
Health board corporate services general manager Thomas Davis argued that a ‘‘black start’’ test’s success could be measured by getting sufficient power to the hospital.
‘‘Of the last 12 tests undertaken, only one – in February 2016 – failed to deliver adequate power to the hospital.
‘‘In all other cases, power for normal operation was provided by at least two generators, which is more than sufficient for demand.’’
Alan Brent, from Victoria University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, favoured a move towards largerscale battery storage to run the hospital and the generators acting as back-up if needed.
‘‘I just have an issue with relying on backup [generators] that are not used continuously. Anything can happen over a threemonth period.
‘‘I would say [the remaining three generators] have a 25 per cent chance of not getting up and running at all, and a 50 per cent chance of complete startup with full operations.
‘‘I guess that leaves it open for interpretation, but it is not a rosy picture in my view.’’
The data shows issues were promptly fixed by technicians on site during the tests.
The hospital has three staff and one contractor able to fix issues with the generators.
They work Monday to Friday, 7.30am to about 5pm. Outside of those hours, they were off-site but on-call and required to attend as soon as practicable.
The board confirmed those staff were always on site during the tests.