Belfast hospital depends on Perkins and Marapco backup power

Critical infrastructure depends on reliable electric power, and virtually no infrastructure is more critical than a major hospital. The Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland is one of the region’s largest and busiest healthcare facilities, serving hundreds of thousands of patients annually. The site has 16 fixed generators to keep the power flowing when the mains fail for any reason.

“Lives depend on it,” said David Callaghan director of AC Automation (UK) Ltd, the company responsible for maintaining, repairing and replacing the hospital’s generators. The company has relied on Perkins powered generator sets built by Marapco, Ltd. Of Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland for more than 20 years. It was no surprise, then, that AC Automation (UK) Ltd chose a Marapco generator set powered by a Perkins® 5008 Series engine to replace a 30-year-old unit at the hospital powered by a Perkins® 3000 Series engine.

“Our relationship with Perkins goes back 40 years,” said Marapco director Keith Johnston. “Perkins engines have proven to be reliable in all applications. Perkins knows our capabilities and limitations, and we know we can rely on them with all the technical applications of their product.”

Perkins® 5000 Series engines are purpose built for electric power applications. They are fully electronic and feature multiple smaller turbochargers to provide excellent load acceptance and transient response. The 1100 kVA model chosen for the hospital application is ISO 8528-5 G3 compliant, meeting the international standard for excellent power quality and rapid load acceptance.

“More and more, we’re seeing consultants asking for G3 governing on generators,” David said. “There are some projects where G3 governing is mandatory.” With extended service intervals and lower fuel and oil consumption, the Perkins 5008 Series engine represents a lower overall cost to the hospital.”

“The Perkins® 3000 Series engine that had run reliably for 30 years was approaching the end of its lifecycle,” said Jonny Ravey, the estates divisional manager for the Royal Victoria Hospital. “The replacement provides backup power to the hospital’s centralised boiler house which provides heat and power for the site.

“It also provides standby power for a central decontamination unit, which sterilises all operating instruments for the site,” Jonny explained, “so the generator is critical.”

The collaboration between Perkins, Marapco and AC Automation (UK) Ltd spans decades of successful applications at Royal Victoria Hospital. Generator sets powered by Perkins 5000 Series engines promise to extend that series of reliable, and economical backup power installations well into the future.

Want to know more? Read the full case study.

When lives are on the line, there’s no room for compromise. That’s why the Northern Ireland Healthcare Trust chose the Perkins® 5008 Series engine to deliver dependable backup power to one of the UK's largest healthcare campuses. From advanced electronic control to lower fuel consumption and longer service intervals, the 5000 Series is engineered to perform when it matters most.