Critical backup power for temporary hospital in just ten days

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a severe shortage in hospital beds and placed a strain on the National Health Service as they struggle to cope with the massive demand placed upon them.

Temporary hospitals have allowed sufferers of the virus to receive the critical care they need – but these brand-new hospitals demand power. Without a contingency plan – patients will be at risk.

The Sunderland Temporary Hospital Project is one of these projects, designed to help ease the weight placed on the permanent hospitals in the North-East. A total of 460 beds comprises the setup, which will have a massive effect on the region’s ability to combat Covid-19.

The electrical contractor responsible for the project was recommended our services by the NHS Trust after previous examples of working with our experts.

We have plenty of experience in delivering our mobile, modular services in short timeframes – and this would prove crucial to the delivery of the hospital and ultimately – thousands of lives.

Our experts attended the site and assessed potential problems, so a plan could be devised that could be implemented rapidly.

Time was of the essence, and effective communication between all teams that were part of the hospital build was maintained. This allowed logistical plans and distribution to be laid out and for action to begin as soon as possible.

The team decided that two 1500 kVA generators and four 500 kVA generators would provide ample power to the hospital should the need arise and offer resilience to the designed power application. To make sure these generators were connected, ready and waiting to deliver when necessary, around 5000 metres of cabling and assorted ancillaries were hooked up.

This solution would ensure the hospital staff and its patients would get exactly what the hospital was there to deliver.

The Sunderland temporary hospital could open its doors to those that need it most, meaning families could rest assured knowing the dedicated staff would be able to provide the specialist care they needed.

The project has been such a success that Aggreko have also been approached to provide our temperature control expertise to the project.