Goals
The first phase of the project aims at analysing and characterizing electrical disturbances, which are plaguing hospitals in developing countries and severely impeding the quality of healthcare systems. A very large proportion of electrical equipment is temporarily or completely taken out of service due to disturbances, such as transients, surges and voltage drops. These occurrences are potentially due to disturbances from the main grid (e.g. a deficient transformer or overvoltage following a power cut), to lightning, connection problems, overloads or devices disturbing the local network (welding station or defective device).
The second phase of the project will consist of devising simple, robust and affordable solutions in order to protect electrical equipment from the disturbances analysed during the first phase. These solutions should not only be adapted to the situation but should also allow local companies to implement them in a profitable manner, by saving money on the maintenance of protected equipment and through the improvement of the healthcare system as a whole.
Methodology and Project Scope
Various sensors, network analysers as well as acquisition cards, specifically devised for this study, will be installed in the district hospitals of Cameroon.
The results will be reviewed by the various partners of the project and will provide new and unique information on local disturbances as well as on disturbances which may occur in the micro-networks that develop around the world, in countries which tend to decentralise power generation.