FINANCIAL services concern, First Capital Bank Zimbabwe (FCB), has donated an amount to the tune of US$30,000 for a low cost renewable energy solution pilot project to complement the blood bank’s cold chain power system.
By Michael Gwarisa
The US$30,000 is part the US$180,000 that is required by be National Blood Service of Zimbabwe (NBSZ) to complete the solar project which when fully implemented, will ease the power outages induced woes the blood bank has been experiencing of late due to persistent and recurring power cuts. The NBSZ cold chain equipment includes ordinary blood bank refrigerators, walk in cold rooms and freezer rooms and laboratory equipment.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) Deputy Minister, Dr John Mangwiro said the NBSZ solar powered cold chain initiative was in line with government’s vision of attaining an Upper Middle Income economy by 2030 through provision of quality healthcare and innovative health service delivery.
Blood is a precious tissue or fluid, so many people have lost lives just because blood did not come early enough. We have changed people’s lives because they have gotten blood. I have seen what blood can do. I was talking to the board chair and he indicated that the solar cold chain program is going to be implemented countrywide.
“With this solar idea that’s coming, I know they are now going to have even portable small fridges that use solar. Once we have these solar carrying small fridges, it will be much easier for us to use drones to distribute blood and this blood and other medicines that need to be kept in fridges will be transported together. This is an initiative which we need to say to NBSZ, well done,” said Dr Mangwiro.
He added that the NBSZ’s vision was in sync with government’s plan of ensuring everyone accesses health services regardless of their geographical location.
“As a nation, we are moving towards 2030 which our President has proclaimed that we should go there. These are some of the improvements that we need to look forward to. The small fridges I mentioned will not only transport blood but will also open avenues for other players in the medical field. Medicines will be transported that way. It’s very important that we understand the importance of this initiative. First Capital Bank, well done, we would like you to encourage other corporates.”
Giving his handover speech, First Capital Bank Managing Director (MD), Ciaran McSharry said, “We believe that our contribution towards this solar system project that is currently underway will help ease the operational hurdles that the institution has been facing. The nature of blood transfusions and storage of blood means that power supply should always be present to preserve the blood stocks that are always on demand nationally.”
He added that FCB was committed to ensuring that the blood bank would continue playing the critical role within the medical system. He also rallied other corporates to support the initiatives such as the solar energy project by the NBSZ.
Giving the solar project background, Mr Patrick Devenish, the Manager for Cool Solar, the company that is working on the NBSZ renewable energy project said, “NBSZ is arguably one of the most important institutions in the country and I am sure nearly everyone here will at some stage have the need for blood. It is critical that we keep this institution going at maximum efficiency on a permanent basis.
“We at Cool Solar were approached back in May last year to see what could be done in terms of designing and installing a Photo Voltaic system to help the organisation deal with ongoing power cuts. We designed a system which will reduce the cost of grid power and more importantly, diesel generators that will most importantly ensure continuity of energy supplies to the blood bank.”
The designed system is a 50 Kilowatt peak installation which will replace the generator during daylight when power cuts are on and the system is also complemented by a 100 kilowatt battery component which will take the system through the night in the event of a power cut.
[pullquote]“The purpose of the system is to ensure that the blood bank is adequately powered at all times and to remove the very high costs of running the generator.”[/pullquote]
Power outages may lead to expiration of blood and blood products and according to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, expired blood must be discarded. Blood has a shelf life of four weeks and if blood is not ordered within that period, it is disposed.
Meanwhile, speaking on the prevailing power situation at the NBSZ and how the solar project would work to the blood bank’s advantage, Ms Lucy Marowa, the NBSZ Chief Executive Officer said the solar project would reduce the energy bill by a huge margin.
“The NBSZ utilises a lot of electricity for its cold chain equipment which includes ordinary blood bank fridges which are also the same size as the household fridges. We also have huge walk in cold rooms and freezer rooms and apart from that, we also have a laboratory equipment that utilizes electricity and the equipment has to be running 24/7 to make sure that we have enough blood in stock.
“Blood being a perishable product, has got a very narrow temperature range within which it has to be kept so that we keep it alive and effective when it is actually transfused. What has been happening is that the electricity bill itself has been quite significant and because it is so huge, the NBSZ finds it difficult at times to keep up with those large electricity bills,” said Ms Marowa.
She added the prevailing power cuts were affecting the blood bank as it is not on the same special emergency grid as Parirenyatwa Hospital. As a result the blood bank has to fall back on their generators where they are currently using a 50 kva Generator which is the main backup power they have and another one, a 5 kva to support the system. The 50 kva generator is however huge when it comes to the consumption of diesel.
“We could even use around 200 liters of diesel in a single day, which is quite heavy when you got incessant power cuts going on. The reason why we decided to go for a low cost solar power project is to try first and foremost to cut out on the electricity bill itself by putting in place a system which primarily runs on solar power and it will be backed up by a 100 KV battery per system which is a repository power to be used during the night as well as on those times when we have power cuts.”
