Search

COVID-19 has affected energy consumption and production pattern in various sectors in both rural and urban areas. Consequently, energy demand has increased. Therefore, most health care centers report a shortage of energy, particularly during the summer seasons. Therefore, integrating renewable energies into hospitals is a promising method that can generate electricity demand reliably and emits less CO2. In this research paper, a hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) with hydrogen energy storage is simulated to cover the energy demand of sections and wards of a hospital that dealt with COVID-19 patients. Produced Oxygen from the hydrogen storage system is captured and stored in medical capsules to generate the oxygen demand for the patients. Results indicate that 29.64% of the annual consumed energy is utilized in COVID-19 sections. Afterward, modeled system has been optimized with a neural network-genetic algorithm to compute the optimum amount of the demand power from the grid, CO2 emission, oxygen capsules, and cost rate. Results determine that by having 976 PV panels, 179 kW fuel cell, and 171.2 kW electrolyzer, annual CO2 emission is 315.8 tons and 67,833 filled medical oxygen capsules can be achieved. The cost rate and demand electricity from the grid for the described system configuration are 469.07 MWh/year and 18.930 EUR/hr, respectively. • Transient simulation a prototype hospital of Department Of Energy. • Transient simulation of a HRES consisting hydrogen storage system for the hospital. • Assessing the system capability in filling oxygen capsules for COVID-19 patients. • Optimizing CO 2 , grid power, O 2 capsules and cost rate of HRES through ANN-GA method. • Calculating optimum sizing of PV panels, electrolyzer and fuel-cell power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The impacts of COVID lockdown on six aged care communities' energy and peak demand are studied. • The lockdown period was compared with the same period of similar temperature in previous years. • The impacts of COVID lockdown varied enormously in different climate regions. • Effectiveness and limitations of existing energy KPIs are discussed. In late March to April 2020 residential aged care facilities (RAC) in Australia were under COVID-19 lockdown. This paper explores whether the resultant restrictions on entry and exit and elimination of site group activities within RACs impacted on the total electricity use, peak demand and electrical load profiles. Six RACs in four different climate zones are analysed, comparing historical electricity load and demand profiles with the lockdown period. The facilities in warm regions showed largest reductions in energy use and peak demands. There was a peak demand timing shift in temperate regions and hot regions' changes were negligible for energy use or peak demands. This study revealed the limitations of using aggregate data as the key performance indicator (KPI) – energy use per bed. Also, KPIs in relation to cooling degree days (or total cooling and heating degree days) have been examined and are not recommended for temperate regions or temperate seasons. The potential CO 2 emission reduction from onsite renewable generation is quantified. Further research is to investigate energy use changes at circuit levels under lockdowns, and develop more nuanced KPIs that include the rate of energy use and the timing of that use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]