In recent years, medical technology has changed a lot. High-tech equipment has become widely used: magnetic resonance tomographs, ultrasound and X-ray machines of an expert class, centrifuges, gas analyzers, hematological and other diagnostic systems. These devices have significantly improved the quality of medical services.
Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are used to protect high-precision equipment in medical centers, hospitals and clinics. In addition, these devices provide quality service to data centers where patient records, medical records and data applications are stored. They also support the power of intelligent building management systems.
According to research conducted by the Public Science Library, power outages in healthcare facilities have a negative impact on everything from providing basic medical care to maintaining complex equipment.
The most common causes of power outages are natural disasters: rainstorms, snowfalls, hurricanes ... In recent years, there have been more such situations around the world, and, according to The New England Journal of Medicine, a slowdown is not yet expected.
It is especially important for medical institutions to maintain high resiliency in emergency situations, when thousands of patients may need help. Therefore, the need for reliable UPS today is greater than ever.
Russian clinics: the question of choosing a quality UPS
Most medical institutions in Russia are state-owned, so equipment purchases are carried out on a competitive basis. To choose a reliable UPS and avoid unnecessary expenses in the future, you need to go through 5 steps when preparing for a tender.
1. Risk analysis. To avoid breakdowns and costly repairs, it is essential to protect valuable medical equipment, laboratory facilities in research centers and cold storage machines where biological materials are stored with a UPS.
Special rules are established for operating blocks. Here, each device is duplicated in case of a breakdown, and the room itself is provided with a guaranteed stable power supply.
The electrical network of operating rooms must be completely independent. This is achieved by installing a transformer. The most common mistake is to replace the transformer with a double conversion UPS. In bypass mode, such UPSs do not break the neutral (working zero), and this is contrary to medical GOSTs and the requirements of SNIP.
2. The choice of power and topology of the UPS. Medical equipment does not have any special requirements for these parameters, so you can use the UPS of any vendors that have international certificates for electromagnetic compatibility.
You only need to decide on the power consumed by the equipment by choosing one- or three-phase UPS. For not very expensive equipment, it is enough to purchase simple backup UPSs, for critical equipment - linear-inert or created according to the topology of double conversion of electricity.
3. Choice of UPS architecture. This step is skipped if it is decided to install single-phase UPSs - they are monoblock.
Among three-phase devices, modular options are optimal, where power and battery blocks are installed in one or more cabinets connected by a common bus. They are great for operating theatres, but require more upfront costs. Nevertheless, modular UPSs fully pay for themselves and are highly reliable with N + 1 redundancy. In case of failure of one power unit, it can be easily dismantled on its own and sent for repair without compromising the system's performance. When ready, it is mounted back without turning off the UPS.
Repair of monobloc three-phase devices requires a qualified service engineer to visit the installation site and can take days or even weeks.
4. Choosing the brand of UPS and batteries. Issues to be clarified when choosing a supplier:
- Does the manufacturer have its own factories and R&D center?
- Are the products ISO 9001, 9014 certified?
- What guarantees are provided?
- Is there an authorized service partner in your area to assist with the installation and start-up of the equipment, and subsequent maintenance?
The array of batteries is selected taking into account the requirements for battery life: the longer it is, the greater the capacity of the batteries should be. Two types of batteries are commonly used in medicine: lead-acid with a resource of 3-6 years and more expensive lithium-ion, which have a significantly higher number of charge-discharge cycles, less weight and temperature requirements, and a resource of about 10 years.
It is advisable to use lead-acid batteries if the network is of good quality and the UPS is almost always in buffer mode. But if the power supply is unstable, there are restrictions on size and weight, lithium-ion batteries should be preferred.
5. Supplier selection. The organization is faced with the task of not only buying a UPS, but also bringing, installing and connecting it. Therefore, it is important to find a supplier who will become a permanent partner: competently carry out commissioning, organize technical support and remote monitoring of the UPS.
This issue should be given special attention, because the conditions of purchase do not include installation and commissioning. There is a risk of being left with nothing - to buy equipment, but not get the opportunity to use it.
Infrastructure professionals need to interact with both the finance department and the medical staff, since the purchase of a UPS is most often planned in conjunction with new medical equipment. Proper planning and coordination of costs is a guarantee that there will be no problems with the purchase and installation of a UPS.
Delta Electronics cases: UPS installation experience in medical organizations
Delta Electronics, together with the Russian distribution company CJSC Tempesto, won a tender for the supply of equipment for the protection of electrical systems Scientific Center for Children's Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (NTsZD RAMS). It provides world-class service and serious research in the field of medicine.
The NTsZD RAMS has the latest equipment and high-precision equipment, which is very sensitive to power outages and voltage drops. To maintain a high quality of care for young patients and prevent injury to medical staff due to equipment malfunction, the task was to replace the power supply protection systems.
UPS of the series ΠΈ. In the event of power outages, these dual conversion topology solutions reliably protect medical equipment. The choice was made in favor of this type of UPS because:
- Modulon NH-Plus and Ultron DPS units deliver industry-leading AC-AC conversion efficiency;
- have a high power factor (> 0,99);
- characterized by low harmonic distortion at the input (iTHD < 3%);
- provide high return on investment (ROI);
- require minimum operating costs.
UPS modularity allows parallel redundancy and quick replacement of equipment that fails. System failure due to power failure is excluded.
Subsequently, Delta equipment was installed in the clinics of the diagnostic and consulting centers at the SCCH RAMS.
Source: habr.com