Examining how microgrids can enhance resilience

Jonathan Dobing, an Electrical Design engineer at Mott MacDonald, discusses his research as part of a Master’s degree in Building Services Engineering to understand the challenges the NHS faces to improve its electrical resilience, and propose solutions to address loss of supply and ensure continuity of service, as well as reduced disruption. His main focus will be distributed energy resources – microgrids comprising renewable energy generation and storage. He is seeking HEJ readers’ views on, and attitudes to, this issue.

Critical infrastructures (e.g., healthcare, communications, and defence) are reliant on a constant, reliable source of energy to maintain the services they support. Pressures recently faced from the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, alongside the most significant – climate change – have highlighted the need to ensure that power system resilience and tackling climate change are critical areas for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to address, often through improvement and upgrading.1 Moreover, the UK’s commitment to have the first Net Zero national health service provides a basis on which to investigate a range of options to ensure resilience. Among these, the potential use of decentralised, locally sourced energy using microgrids that incorporate renewable energy generation and energy storage is an emerging option. Furthermore, the Net Zero targets set by the UK Government infer the need to introduce more sustainable sources of energy generation at a national and local level.

Limitations of solar PV