Rural Healthcare Reinvented: One Pharmacist’s Solution to Power Challenges
Ibrahim Adebayo runs a small pharmacy in a rural village in Nigeria. His pharmacy serves local residents as well as people from nearby communities who travel long distances to access essential medicines. At 42 years old, Ibrahim has been running this pharmacy for 8 years. The biggest challenge he faces is electricity.
The village is connected to the national grid, but power is highly unreliable. Electricity is often available only 2–4 hours per day, and the schedule is unpredictable. Sometimes it comes in the early morning, sometimes in the afternoon. Under these conditions, Ibrahim cannot rely on the grid to keep refrigerators running or even to charge his phone.
The Critical Importance of Reliable Power
More critical is medication storage. WHO regulations require vaccines to be kept between 2–8°C; outages longer than 4 hours can compromise them. The pharmacy collaborates with the local health post to ensure vaccines are safely stored and administered. Insulin and certain antibiotics also require refrigeration. During long outages, Ibrahim had to monitor thermometers by candlelight, even at 3 AM, creating fire hazards in a room full of medications.
Other nearby pharmacies avoided the problem by not storing refrigerated medicines. Residents often had to travel long distances to access insulin or vaccines—an impossible journey for the elderly or pregnant women, leaving them without essential medications.
Ibrahim refused to accept this. He had witnessed preventable suffering: children missing vaccinations, patients with chronic conditions facing complications, villagers traveling far for medicines. But he also knew that without a reliable power solution, the pharmacy could not serve the community effectively.
Finding and Implementing a Solution
In late 2023, Ibrahim attended a pharmaceutical conference in the regional capital, where he learned about LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) battery systems. These batteries can achieve thousands of charge cycles—enough to last over a decade even with daily use—and support multiple units in parallel.
Ibrahim calculated that a setup of six 100Ah 51.2V batteries in parallel would provide enough energy to power his pharmacy through typical outages. Two medical refrigerators, lighting, fans, and sterilization equipment could run reliably for several days even without grid power. Critical equipment could be prioritized during extended outages, ensuring vaccines and essential medicines remained safe.
For the inverter, he chose a model with dual AC outputs. This allowed critical equipment (refrigerators) to run uninterrupted while non-essential devices (lighting, fans) were automatically cut off when battery capacity dropped—a feature that proved invaluable during extended periods of grid instability in 2024, when Nigeria’s national power grid experienced multiple collapses and widespread outages .
Ibrahim purchased the batteries and inverter online. At that time, PowMr did not have a local warehouse in Nigeria, so he had to wait over two weeks for delivery.
By 2025, PowMr had established an official offline store in Nigeria, allowing customers to experience the products in person and access existing stock, while nationwide delivery times were significantly reduced.
System Configuration
The system was carefully designed to automatically prioritize essential loads. When grid power is available, the batteries are charged first, ensuring that stored energy is ready for any upcoming outages.
The inverter also supports solar panels via dual MPPT inputs, so if PV panels are installed in the future, the system can draw power from the sun during the day to charge the batteries and directly supply the pharmacy’s equipment.
During power interruptions, critical equipment such as vaccine and medicine refrigerators, as well as the UV sterilizer, are supplied continuously, while non-essential loads like lighting, fans, phone charging stations, and the electric kettle are automatically cut off if battery capacity drops.
This prioritization is made possible by the PowMr 10.2 kW dual AC output inverter, which separates critical and non-critical loads into two independent circuits.
| Output / Priority | Equipment | Power | Daily Usage | Daily Consumption |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC1 (Critical) | Vaccine Refrigerator | 150 W | 24h | 3.6 kWh |
| Medicine Refrigerator | 90 W | 24h | 2.16 kWh | |
| UV Sterilizer | 40 W | 1h | 0.04 kWh | |
| Small Cold Storage Cabinet | 100 W | 10h | 1.0 kWh | |
| AC2 (Non-Critical) | LED Lighting (8 units) | 15 W × 8 | 10h | 1.2 kWh |
| Table Fans (2 units) | 50 W × 2 | 8h | 0.8 kWh | |
| Phone Charging Station | 80 W | 8h | 0.64 kWh | |
| Electric Kettle | 1,500 W | 0.3h | 0.45 kWh |
The pharmacy’s daily energy consumption adds up to approximately 11.9 kWh, which is well supported by the six 48V 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries in the system, total 30.72 kWh, usable 24.6 kWh at 80% DOD. The batteries are wall-mounted, with most units installed higher up at around 1.6 meters above the floor, while a few are slightly lower for easier inspection. This setup:
- Saves floor space in the small pharmacy.
- Prevents children from accidentally touching the batteries, particularly when accompanying their parents.
- Provides good ventilation and accessibility for maintenance and monitoring.
This careful installation, combined with the dual AC output inverter, ensures both safety and reliability, keeping critical medical equipment powered even during extended outages.
Community Impact and Recognition
Ibrahim’s energy storage system has transformed the pharmacy’s role in the village. Parents no longer need to travel long distances to vaccinate their children, as the health post can rely on stable refrigeration.
Patients with chronic conditions, including diabetes and hypertension, can access essential medicines reliably. Villagers can charge their phones conveniently, saving time and enabling daily work. Over time, the pharmacy has become a community hub, providing both critical medical services and a space for villagers to gather and interact.
The success of this system has drawn attention from health officials. They noted that promoting similar setups in rural clinics could guarantee safe storage of medicines and vaccines for thousands of residents. Ibrahim’s pharmacy has become a model demonstration site, showcasing how technology and careful planning can significantly improve healthcare access in remote areas.
Looking Ahead
Ibrahim plans to install solar panels and expand batteries if needed. His goal is stable, reliable service for villagers—not bigger, just better.
Now, ordinary days mean uninterrupted vaccines at the health post, reliable medicines for patients, charged phones, and functioning fans—thanks to careful planning, technology, and one pharmacist’s determination.