Backup Power system with Generator for Al Jazeera Hospital

About this project

Al Jazeera Hospital is supplied from an 11 kV switching station, and its standby power system had reached the point of replacement. Almafor delivered the upgrade as main contractor under project D-106669.

The new standby plant is a containerised diesel generator rated 3000 kVA at 11 kV, integrated into the existing 11 kV switching station rather than installed alongside it as a separate island. A 500 kVA station auxiliary transformer at 11 kV to 415 V was installed to carry the station's own services.

The control scope is what turns a generator into a standby system. A Remote Generator Control Panel provides supervision and control away from the machine itself, and an Automatic Mains Failure scheme with synchronising detects the loss of supply, starts and loads the set, and returns the load to the incoming supply without a second interruption when it recovers. A remote monitoring modem lets the plant be interrogated without attending site.

A hospital is the clearest case for why standby power is a control problem rather than an equipment problem. A generator that starts is not the requirement. A generator that starts, takes load in the right order and hands it back cleanly, with somebody able to see that it did, is the requirement.