UPS for medical facilities: Delta Electronics health care experience

Recently, medical technology has changed in many ways. High-tech equipment has become widely used: magnetic resonance tomographs, ultrasound and x-ray devices of 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 data center services where patient records, medical records and data processing applications are stored. They also support the power of intelligent building management systems.

According to the results of research conducted by the Public Scientific Library, interruptions in the electrical network of medical institutions negatively affect all work: from the provision of basic medical care to maintaining the efficiency of complex equipment.

Natural disasters such as heavy rains, snowfalls, hurricanes become the most frequent causes of power outages ... In recent years, such situations have become more widespread throughout the world, and, according to the medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine, a slowdown has not been foreseen.

It is especially important for medical institutions to maintain high resiliency in emergency situations, when assistance may be required for thousands of patients. Therefore, the need for reliable UPS is great today.

Clinics of Russia: the question of choosing a quality UPS

Most medical institutions in Russia are state-owned, so equipment purchases are made on a competitive basis. To choose a reliable UPS and avoid unnecessary costs in the future, you need to go through 5 steps in preparation for the tender.

1. Risk analysis. In order to avoid breakdowns and costly repairs, it is imperative to protect valuable medical equipment, laboratory equipment in research centers and refrigerating machines where biological materials are stored using the UPS.

Special rules are established for operating units. Here, each device is duplicated in the event of a breakdown, and the room itself is provided with a guaranteed stable power supply.

The operating network must be completely independent. This is achieved by installing a transformer. The most common mistake is the replacement of a transformer with a double power conversion UPS. In the bypass mode, such UPSs do not break the neutral (working zero), and this is contrary to medical GOSTs and SNIP requirements.

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 UPS of any vendors that have international electromagnetic compatibility certificates.

It is necessary to decide only with the consumed equipment capacity, choosing single-phase or three-phase UPS. For not very expensive equipment, it is enough to purchase simple backup UPSs, for critical equipment, linear inert or dual power conversion based on topology.

3. The choice of UPS architecture. This step is skipped if it is decided to install single-phase UPSs - they are single-block.

Among the three-phase devices, modular variants are optimal, where the power and battery packs are installed in one or several cabinets with a common bus. They are great for operating theaters, but they require a higher initial cost. Nevertheless, modular UPSs pay off completely and are highly reliable when backing up with the N + 1 scheme. In the event of failure of a single power unit, it is easily dismantled on its own and sent for repair without affecting the performance of the system. As soon as it is ready, it is mounted back without shutting down the UPS.

Repair of monoblock three-phase devices requires a qualified service engineer to go to the place of installation and can take several days or even weeks.

4. Select the brand of UPS and batteries. Questions that need to be clarified when choosing a supplier:

• Does the manufacturer have its own factories and a research center?
• Does the product have ISO 9001, 9014 certificates?
• What guarantees are provided?
• Is there an authorized service partner in your region to assist with installation and commissioning of equipment, subsequent maintenance?

The array of batteries is selected taking into account the requirements for the duration of autonomous work: the larger it is, the greater must be the capacity of the batteries. In medicine, two types of batteries are commonly used: lead-acid batteries with a resource of 3–6 years and more expensive lithium-ion batteries, which have a significantly higher number of charge-discharge cycles, less mass and requirements for temperature, and a resource of about 10 years.

It is advisable to use lead-acid batteries if the network is of high quality and the UPS is almost always buffered. But if the power supply is unstable, there are limitations in size and weight, it is worthwhile to give preference to lithium-ion batteries.

5. Select a supplier. The organization has the task not only to buy a UPS, but also to bring, install and connect. Therefore, it is important to find a supplier who will become a regular partner: competently carry out commissioning, organizes technical support and remote monitoring of the UPS.

This issue should be given special attention, because installation and commissioning works are not specified in the terms of purchase. There is a risk to remain at the broken trough - to buy equipment, but not to get the opportunity to use it.

Specialists involved in the engineering infrastructure must interact with the financial department and the medical staff, since the purchase of the UPS is most often planned in conjunction with new medical equipment. Competent planning and coordination of expenses is a guarantee that there will be no problems with the purchase and installation of the UPS.

Cases Delta Electronics: the experience of installing UPS 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 of the Scientific Center for Children's Health, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (NZCD RAMS). It provides global service and conducts serious research in the field of medicine.

The latest equipment and high-precision equipment, which is very sensitive to power supply interruptions and voltage drops, is installed at the Scientific and Technical Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. To maintain the high quality of care for young patients and prevent injury to medical staff due to equipment malfunction, the task was to replace power supply protection systems.

Delta Modulon NH-Plus 100 kVA and Ultron DPS 200 kVA UPS systems are installed in the premises of the research center, laboratories and refrigerators. In the event of power outages, these solutions with double conversion topology reliably protect medical equipment. The choice was made in favor of this type of UPS, because:

• Modulon NH-Plus and Ultron DPS units show the industry's best AC-AC conversion efficiency;
• have a high power factor (> 0.99);
• they are characterized by low harmonic distortion at the input (iTHD <3%);
• provide high investment performance (ROI);
• require a minimum of operating costs.

The modularity of the UPS provides the possibility of parallel redundancy and quick replacement of equipment that has failed. System failure due to power outages excluded.

In the future, Delta equipment was installed in the clinics of the diagnostic and consultation centers at the NCHS RAMS.