Cummins Power Generation Sustains Critical Patient Care at Ground-Breaking Australian Hospital

Gold Coast University Hospital

Gold Coast University Hospital, one of Australia’s largest public health infrastructure projects employed Cummins Power Generation’s emergency backup power system to support 24-hour patient treatment and care. Built by Lend Lease at Southport, the new $1.76 billion 750-bed hospital delivers an extensive range of medical and healthcare services, including additional operating theatres, an expanded intensive care unit and emergency department, greater capacity in medical imaging, pharmacy and pathology services as well as new services like cancer radiotherapy, neuroscience, neonatal intensive care, trauma response and cardiac therapy. The new hospital also includes 300 additional beds and more than triple the floor space of the existing hospital. The new hospital would be comprised of seven main buildings each requiring reliable power for their operations.

A need for continuous and reliable emergency back-up power

As one of Australia’s largest public health projects to date, the Gold Coast University Hospital provides high-quality medical services to meet rapid regional growth and an aging population. The hospital is a specialist facility providing tertiary level services and therefore plays a pivotal role as one of Queensland’s largest clinical teaching and research facilities in training Australia’s healthcare professionals of the future.

To support its wide variety of medical functions, the Gold Coast University Hospital requires an emergency power system which could be relied on for continuous generation and supply – even throughout a grid-wide blackout or other catastrophic outage. When building the hospital, Managing Contractor Lend Lease sought an emergency power supplier who could deliver a fully-integrated system to sustain both patient load and core medical services.

Implementing power generation with C3000 generator sets and QSK78G9 diesel engines

The emergency power system at the Gold Coast University Hospital now runs on four C3000D5 generator sets powered by Cummins’ biggest low-emission diesel engine, the 78-litre QSK78G9, with each generator having a continuous rating of 2.2MW. The fully integrated system also incorporates a single Cummins DMC300 digital master control system and Cummins PowerCommand digital paralleling equipment, which provide mains paralleling to ensure uninterrupted transfers between main supply and the hospital’s generators.

Mains paralleling also provides the high degree of voltage stability required for hospital operations where unregulated fluctuations in power output can result in damage to patients’ or sensitive medical equipment. The digital master control system allows operators to monitor and rapidly respond to any potential disruptions in output, either during testing or in a live outage situation.

Cummins Power Generation was selected for this project due to their ability to design, supply, install and commission a fully integrated, turnkey power solution with world class emergency power reliability as well as their track record and reputation for strong technical collaboration on large-scale infrastructure projects. The project saw the Cummins Power Generation team working collaboratively alongside Lend Lease and other stakeholders including builders, electrical contractors and other associated services to ensure successful implementation.

The project was a success due to the demonstrably high standard of Cummins technical deployment and the collaborative capabilities of its service team. The reliability and ease of deployment associated with the Cummins solution means that Gold Coast University Hospital is well-placed to meet growing medical and health services demand in Queensland and broader Australia.

For more information about Cummins Power Generation systems currently in use around the world, visit power.cummins.com.