Meeting energy demand for critical health care in developing economies: a case study modelling renewable energy systems.

Most of the world’s fastest population growth is occurring in cities of developing countries. With this growth comes higher demand for energy and modern energy services. However, the utility grids in many developing countries are unreliable with dire consequences for economic and social wellbeing with the health sector in these nations experiencing some of the most severe impacts. Review of WHO-sponsored and other related research documents reveals that there is a gap in current frameworks for healthcare energy provision. Existing frameworks for measuring and improving access and quality of electricity for healthcare facilities lack essential demand-side elements to identify potential levels of energy requirements. Research to further define demand-side requirements and optimal power supply technologies in different settings is required. Consequently, this research initiated a multi-dimensional energy framework to address this gap using Nigeria as a case study. First, a focus group of experts was recruited to assess essential electricity demand for an energy intensive treatment based on WHO's SARA compendium of health services. Second, a post-energy assessment criticality analysis was conducted to create a lower level energy demand based on the most essential (or critical) applications in the treatment. Third, renewable energy technologies (RETs) were modelled in microgrid systems to determine the most viable systems in terms of cost effectiveness, reliability and environmental sustainability. Results show that two levels of energy demand for health services - essential and critical - can be created using a criticality assessment method. An Event Resilience Index of 0.34 was derived i.e. an energy system should power 34% of essential equipment in a secondary or lower level health facility for it to be resilient to unexpected power outages. On the supply- side, DER systems in settings with high solar but low hydro potentials in Nigeria require backup generators to ensure reliability and lower costs based on pre-set benchmarks (CoE of ≤$0.14/kWh and emission of ≤1000 gCO₂-eq/kWh) without producing unhealthy levels of pollutant emissions. Systematically determined reduced loads can be powered economically using fully renewable power resources. Furthermore, the modelling of energy resources in Nigeria's six geopolitical zones revealed that Nigeria has significantly more microhydro potential than wind.