Because of major problems of existing incinerators at St. Kizito Hospital Matany a new incinerator was in need to ensure a proper burning process of dangerous medical waste. An incinerator must reach a certain temperature to sterilize or destroy sharps and effectively burn wet medical waste. The minimum amount of smoke and toxic gases should be produced while keeping the incinerator as simple as possible. The installed incinerator type “HWI-5” was developed by TTM for this specific purpose – for disaster relief and rural hospitals.
To ensure a proper installation and operation a training was organized at the hospital. Partner institutions were invited to send their technicians. This should also allow further installations of incinerators in Uganda with the help of local technicians and improve the maintenance of the incinerators from the partner institutions as well.
The training took place as planned between 27.05. and 30.05.2019. As by the nature of the training and the recommendation of the supplier, a limited number of partner institutions were invited. Seven external technicians and five local technicians attended the training.
The training was carried out as planned with the following schedule:
30.05.
Throughout the whole training, the time was used to share experiences between the participants. Not only regarding Waste Management and Incinerator Operation but also about general Maintenance and other Systems e.g. Treatment Wetlands.
For each institution a hardcopy and a softcopy of relevant manuals was handed over.
Each participant received a Participation Certificate.
During an Assessment of the technical installations in Pope John’s Hospital Aber (PJHA) several findings were made.
The relevant topics for this project were:
After discussion with the different parties, the decision was made to support the hospital in organizing a suitable training and to install the solar panels to reduce the running costs of the hospital. This is the most efficient way to use Solar Panels, without high investment costs, as no Battery is required. Of course, because of this the system has no Back Up functions in case of blackout.
The hospital agreed to independently finance the basic material to renovate the main distributor for better safety and an automatic change over switch to reduce blackout time in the hospital.
Energy Meter Reading of Produced Power: 1025.2 kWh by 31.07.2019
After system operation of one and a half month, around 1000 kWh of power were produced. This means around 600kWh are produced per month which was expected with an installation of 6500kWp Solar Generator. Assuming energy costs of around 700 UGX per kWh this comes to a saving of 420.000 UGX or roughly 100€ per month.
(Power tariffs)
Grid Parallel Photovoltaic Systems:
Instead of installing a battery which will be charged by Solar Panels, it is also possible to Supply Loads directly from the Solar Panels. The main requirement is a Grid Inverter that transforms the DC Power from the Panels into AC Power which can be then consumed by standard loads in households, or in this case the hospital.
The purpose of an installation like this is solely to reduce the power consumption from the Grid and therefore reduce the costs on the electricity bill.
Installed Equipment:
To test the Panels the open circuit voltage was measured and was found to be between 44 and 45 Volts.
The installation took place between 01.06.2019 and 12.06.2019 and was done by the hospital and support / training through a local Electrician. During this time also the Main Distributor was renovated and a Monitoring System was installed.
The training was carried out from the 13th to the 15th of August 2019. As by the nature of the training a limited number of partner institutions were invited. Thirteen external technicians and two local technicians attended the training.
The topics were:
The whole training was designed to encourage the participants to discuss the topics in small groups. The participants were able to share knowledge and problems to the group and therefore solutions and advises were developed together.
Two volunteers (students) have under the supervision of BBM installed digital electricity meters in eight catholic hospitals in Uganda. The evaluation helps hospitals to save energy and shows the profitability of existing solar power systems.
In the installed electricity meters the technicians of BBM integrated a data storage which plots the consumption of power. Financier is DKA (Dreikönigsaktion). The target of the project was to offer the technicians of the hospital a possibility to overview the electric systems and to recognize and correct diverse problems early. In a few hospitals this power monitoring system was used earlier. In this way a comparison with the data was possible in the latest years.
In addition, the staff were interviewed on site. The target was to find out the energy consumption for the near future. From information about the actual energy consumption and the planned future development, the BBM calculated a load profile. The basis to this is a strategic development plan for the next five years. The aim of the project was, on the one hand, to raise awareness of the actual electricity consumption and to find potential savings. On the other hand, to determine the investment costs for a partial or complete power supply using photovoltaics (PV). The results of this study were passed on by the BBM to the hospitals and their umbrella organization in order to be able to react to the savings potential found and to convince potential donors of the sensibility of new investments in this area.
St. Joseph’s Hospital Kitgum, Uganda
The load profile of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Kitgum shows that around 25% of the total electricity requirement (orange area in the diagram) is already covered by the PV system installed in 2017. The remaining approx. 75% (gray area in the diagram) – depending on availability – is provided by the power grid or a diesel generator. Another result of the study was that there is a relatively large potential for savings by switching off devices that are not required, as well as by replacing traditional lamps with economical LED lights. This is especially true in the evening and night, when there is no solar energy available to reduce the electricity required from the grid or a diesel generator. It was also determined what additional solar power would be required to cover the hospital’s electricity needs as fully as possible in the future with solar power. The installation of another PV system with 25 kWp is expected to be carried out as early as 2019 to 2020. According to this calculation, the solar power will then be able to cover around 40% of future electricity needs.
