Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has, in reply to a parliamentary question, said that his department, with the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, is conducting “a due diligent exercise for the installation of solar panels at all our health facilities as a first or second or third power back-up mechanism (first being generators; second being solar panels; and third being Uninterrupted Power Suppliers)”, writes Wyndham Hartley in LegalBrief.
Phaahla told DA MP Michéle Clarke that the due diligent exercise was inclusive of solar PV+ battery storage as backup for the critical areas of hospitals and clinics.
“The study’s purpose is to identify a critical consumption for critical areas of each health facility so that the department can be able to roll-out the relevant solar energy for each one,” he said.
Clarke asked him whether, given the damaging effect of load shedding on the public health sector, any studies had been done to assess the power capacity needed in hospitals and clinics; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details.
Phaahla said in the short-term the Health Department has provided Eskom with a total of 213 hospitals to be considered for possible exclusion from load shedding. About 67% of them are supplied by municipalities while Eskom supplies about 33% of the identified hospitals.
Out of the 213 hospitals, 76 have been exempted, of which 25 are directly supplied by Eskom and 50 by municipalities. The number of hospitals exempted to date has doubled since the meeting held on 22 September 2022 between Eskom and the department.
LegalBrief article – New policy for solar panels at hospitals (Restricted access)
See more for MedicalBrief archives:
Calls to exempt hospitals and clinics from loadshedding
72 hospitals now exempted from load shedding
37 of more than 300 public hospitals so far exempted from load shedding