HAS International Seminar

Presenter: Rebecca Alcock

Title: Last-mile health facility electrification: an analytics toolkit

Abstract: Persisting energy poverty in healthcare facilities endangers patients and providers alike by limiting available services and creating poor working conditions. For clinics not yet connected to a traditional power grid (i.e., last-mile clinics), distributed clean energy solutions are the timeliest and most climate-resilient option. However, without accessible and relevant renewable energy design tools, these facilities must wait for grid connection or turn to carbon-based decentralized alternatives. Motivated by the urgent and widening nature of the energy-health crisis, we developed a toolkit to optimally design a solar, storage, and e-vehicle network for never-before-electrified health facilities. The toolkit comprises three components: 1) simulation, descriptive analytics, and predictive analytics for parameter generation, 2) prescriptive analytics to size the energy system, and 3) simulation to evaluate long-run performance under changing climate and healthcare conditions. This talk will focus on the challenge of energy access in global health settings and select elements of the toolkit.