Posted by Shefali Oza
The district of Achham, where our clinic is based, is currently suffering from one of the most severe power outages in recent memory. In this blog post, we provide an update on how Nyaya Health’s energy systems are functioning and what we do during severe power outages to ensure the best possible patient care.
Nyaya has two backup systems in place for when the external power lines (grid) goes out, which happens fairly regularly. The first is our battery and inverter energy system from Lotus Energy in Kathmandu that we installed at the clinic last fall. After charging the battery for approximately 12 hours, this system can provide power for over 24 hours if we are conservative with our power consumption. In our experience thus far, this system combined with the external grid has usually been enough to provide us with electricity 24 hours per day.
The inverter energy system with battery at our clinic.
However, for more prolonged external grid outages, the inverter battery is unable to charge sufficiently. We then use our 5-kilowatt diesel generator. Given the current severe power outages, we run the generator for approximately 1-2 hours per day, which is enough for lab tests and charging the computers that are needed for patient registration and recording lab and pharmacy data. As an additional backup, we keep paper copies of all the registration and data collection forms. The information from these forms can then be entered into the computer databases once the power is back on. We also turn on the generator temporarily during these severe power outages when an emergency patient comes in needing treatment from medical devices that require electricity, such as a nebulizer.
Our diesel generator.
When the inverter system or generator is turned on, we have developed a protocol to limit the use of equipment that requires lots of power. For example, during these times we do not operate the incubator or autoclave in our lab. We are currently in the process of acquiring a lower-power centrifuge and colorimeter for the lab which will help us reduce our energy needs. The lights and computers have relatively minimal impact on the battery charge or generator fuel consumption as they require little power.
With these backup systems, we have been able to ensure that the clinic has reliable electricity for all but the most severe power outages. The protocol we have developed allows us to maintain patient care while keeping fuel costs at a minimum during the more severe outages when the generator is needed.