Design of an Industrial Off-Grid Photovoltaic System for the Intensive Care Unit at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital

The world is progressively shifting away from conventional power sources based on fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources due to the aggravation of noise, harmful fume pollution and the dreaded climate change. The primary goal of this effort was to develop an industrial standalone photovoltaic system for essential loads to increase the efficiency and dependability of the power supply in the UBTH distribution network. UBTH's electrical distribution network underwent an energy audit, and the important loads were those that had a direct influence on patients' health and were operated continuously for 24 hours. A load/energy audit was conducted on a catalog of electrical appliances to determine the energy demand in the intensive care unit, which amounted to a total of 36.02 kW and thus, was used in the design of the photovoltaic system based on known theories. Calculations were made to determine the output power required from the photovoltaic system design and thus gave rise to the calculated number of photovoltaic panels. The choice of batteries, charge controllers, multi-cluster boxes, inverters, circuit breakers and cables was made in line with the design specifications. According to the results, the intensive care unit required an average of 864.48 kWh of energy per day to run for twenty-four (24) hours a day, and 1061.06 m2 of PV space. Thus, a total of 495 photovoltaic panels were required to cater for the required energy, including a calculated amount of 240 batteries to power the ICU at nightfall. In developing nations, we advocate solar technology for organizations like hospitals in rendering essential services seamlessly, since the sun has a proud position among the renewable energy sources being used due to its ubiquity.