In a bid to evade Eskom’s constant power outages, and reduce soaring generator fuel costs, the Western Cape Health Department has earmarked R87m to install hybrid inverters in every rural primary healthcare facility in the province and solar panels at 15 hospitals.
HoD Dr Keith Cloete said there had been a 56% increase in all infrastructure emergencies at health facilities between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, with a specific increase of 140% in generator and electrical emergencies.
Although 10 public hospitals in the province are exempted from load shedding, another 193 depend on generators.
Between April and June this year, reports News24, the department spent R12m on diesel during load shedding.
Cloete said the inverter programme at rural clinics would happen in two phases.
“The first will involve 51 clinics, and a budget of R37m, and phase two will target 87 clinics with a budget of R47m in the 2024/25 financial year. In phase one, nine clinical have been completed while 42 are still in planning and costing, 27 are in load testing, and 15 are still to be initiated.”
The first phase would be completed by the end of March next year.
"The clinics have been supplied with inverters and lithium batteries to provide a seamless essential power supply during load shedding.”
As yet no photovoltaic panels had been installed “due to safety and security concerns”.
On the renewable energy programme, Cloete said the department was planning to install solar photovoltaic embedded generators at 15 hospitals.
“This will be completed at three facilities in 2023/24 while others will be completed thereafter.”
The renewable energy programme will be expanded to all other health facilities as resources become available, he added.
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Blackouts cost state hospitals R700m in diesel – Phaahla
Alternative energy plans for healthcare facilities
Healthcare workers tell of the devastating toll of rolling power cuts
37 of more than 300 public hospitals so far exempted from load shedding