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Hospital del Niño installs Tesla microgrid to lower costs, boost resiliency

The Hospital del Niño de Puerto Rico has installed its own Tesla power generation system, or “microgrid” system, which it confirmed will help keep interrupted operations going.

It is one of the first microgrid systems Tesla installed in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck the island, and one of the largest systems that has evolved from a temporary disaster relief installation to a permanent site during this recovery period.

The company originally installed the system in the hospital’s parking lot to help maintain the critical operation of its medical services when the public electricity service was not available, and has now moved the installation to a separate dedicated area to re-open the parking lot.

Among many other benefits to the Hospital del Niño, the microgrid will offer lower electricity costs through the use of renewable solar energy generation and battery storage, and backup power in the case of a grid outage or interruption. It also avoids the use of emergency generators for extended periods of time, which reduces fuel consumption, limits pollution, and will increase the reliability of these generators.

Tesla worked with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the Puerto Rico Permits Management Office, and several local partners to bring the new microgrid online.

It now consists of 776 solar panels that have the capacity to generate 200kW DC/150 kW AC of solar energy. It also has five powerpacks capable of storing 475kWh of energy. Tesla will continue to support the hospital in the maintenance of the operation, the nonprofit said.

The site has been reinforced to withstand up to 190 mph winds due to a ground-mount racking system for the solar panels and a concrete mounted pad for the Powerpacks.

“This will make the hospital more resilient when facing a storm or any other event that disrupts the public utility service, thus ensuring better uptime and the stability of the valuable services offered to our small patients and their families,” said Ralphie Pagán, chairman of the Hospital’s Board of Directors.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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