How hospital was powered to success

Maintenance worker Gao Wenpan walked 15 kilometers every day to inspect the power supply for Huoshenshan Hospital, an emergency facility built to treat novel coronavirus patients.

Since Jan 31, Gao and six colleagues from a branch of State Grid in Wuhan, Hubei province, helped maintain the supply to a temporary power station about 150 meters from the hospital.

The 41-year-old, who has worked for 20 years in the industry, said it was the most unusual job he had been assigned during his career.

"Unlike other power supply tasks－such as those for college entrance examinations, art festivals and the 2019 Military World Games－this one concerned thousands of people's lives," Gao said.

Huoshenshan Hospital had about 1,000 beds, and each negative pressure ward needed power to prevent contaminated air leaking outside. Other equipment at the hospital included ventilators and CT scanners.

According to Gao, the hospital's daily power consumption was equivalent to that of nearly 4,000 households.

"We could not let the power fail, even for a second," he said. "Every day my team monitored equipment, such as transformers, through surveillance cameras and checked wires at blind spots by physical inspections; twice during the day and once at night."

Gao's team made three walking inspections every day of power lines and other facilities supplying the temporary station.

During one of their rounds, they stopped a group of workers who were digging drainage ditches unaware that high-voltage cables were below.

In February, when snowstorms hit Wuhan, they inspected and secured transformer boxes to prevent short circuits. "We had to wear uncomfortable rubber shoes and everyone had blistered feet due to the walking inspections. Fortunately, we completed our tasks perfectly. The power at the hospital did not stop," he said.

On April 17, two days after the hospital closed, Gao and his team returned to their homes.

He remains proud of the coordination and organizational efforts to construct the hospital.

"It was the first time that I had seen all building sectors work on a construction project simultaneously. Some workers were building wards, while others were paving roads and we were building the electricity facilities.

"It was extremely difficult to coordinate, but the construction was completed within just a few days. I have never experienced such high productivity and it was awesome to be part of it," he said.

In 1997, Gao joined the army in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and left two years later. He joined the electricity company in 2000, starting as an electrician's apprentice.

In 2010, he was moved to the maintenance and construction department and he is now the deputy director of maintenance department of the branch in Wuhan's Caidian district.

Gao said that over the past decade he has spent just two Spring Festival holidays at home. He usually patrols outdoor power facilities to ensure a stable power supply during the holidays.

When the Huoshenshan Hospital issued a notice to recruit workers from his company, Gao applied to join without telling his family members.

"To be honest, I was a little fearful of the virus because I didn't know about it. What I knew then was that confirmed cases and deaths were reported every day," he said.

"However, I realized that I needed to shoulder my responsibility to help the hospital treat patients and ease the crisis. I am a soldier and my work is to throw myself into the fight with no excuse."