Healthcare in New Jersey: Enhancing Energy Efficiency Through Engineered Solutions
By: Steven Soussou, P.E. | MEP Engineering Department Manager
Christopher J. Lawrence, P.E., LEED AP BD+C | Senior Project Mechanical Engineer
Hospitals are among the most energy-intensive buildings in any community, operating around the clock while maintaining strict requirements for safety, comfort, and reliability. In fact, the most recent edition of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (2018) found that healthcare facilities accounted for roughly nine percent of energy consumption among all commercial buildings despite comprising only four percent of commercial floor space.
Hospitals are a prime candidate for energy efficiency due to the substantial amount of energy that is required for these facilities to operate. Unlike many other types of facilities, including outpatient medical facilities, hospitals are required to run continuously. This means that, where other types of businesses would see a decline in power usage on nights and weekends, hospitals require a steady, uninterrupted supply of power 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a result, hospitals often incorporate redundancies into their systems so that if one piece of infrastructure fails, they have an alternative way to continue to meet the facility’s needs.
The constant use of power and the need for redundancies can cause hospitals to incur significant operating costs. However, by identifying areas of inefficiency and leveraging the support of public programs, hospitals can substantially reduce energy consumption and achieve long-term utility savings without compromising the quality of patient care.
Engineered Solutions
In accordance with the New Jersey Clean Energy Act of 2018, Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) offers several comprehensive programs that are designed to improve energy efficiency in both homes and businesses. The most robust among these programs is the Engineered Solutions Program (ESP), which incentivizes whole-building energy upgrades for large-scale facilities such as municipalities, universities, schools, hospitals, and multifamily apartment complexes.
Participants in the ESP receive a free energy audit designed to identify existing inefficiencies and make recommendations for potential improvements. As part of the audit, a series of energy efficiency measures are proposed along with anticipated implementation costs and estimated energy savings. From there, participants can opt to move forward with all, some, or none of the identified measures.
Any measures designated for implementation then enter an engineering design phase, during which bid documents are prepared by one of PSE&G’s pre-approved engineering vendors. After the design is complete, the measures are competitively bid and subsequently awarded to a contractor for implementation. Construction administration services are provided by the engineering vendor during construction; however, participants (or a third-party construction manager) are ultimately responsible for coordinating day-to-day construction activities.
As part of the construction closeout process, one of PSE&G’s pre-approved commissioning agents evaluates all new equipment and tests for proper functionality. Once construction is complete, PSE&G monitors the facility’s energy consumption over a one-year measurement and verification period to compare actual energy savings against the estimations.
The ESP is financially structured such that PSE&G and program participants share project costs. Although each project is different, participants are typically required to pay between one- and two-thirds of the overall project cost, with the balance paid by PSE&G. PSE&G initially funds the entire project’s design and construction cost, and, upon completion of construction, the participant begins repayment of their portion costs via a five-year, interest-free bill repayment program. This approach allows organizations to pursue large-scale capital improvement projects with significant energy-saving components, which might otherwise be financially unfeasible.
Energy Efficiency in Practice
The intricacies of which energy efficiency practices are most effective differ from facility to facility. Broadly, there are commonalities between hospitals with regards to locating points of inefficiency and developing strategies for improvement.
Chiller Plants
Chiller plants are centralized cooling systems that provide chilled water to large buildings such as schools, industrial storage facilities, and, of course, hospitals. These systems use dedicated pumps to distribute chilled water to various pieces of HVAC equipment to support air conditioning functions. Hospitals inherently have large HVAC loads due to their nature, and often require cooling and dehumidification year-round. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a hospital to run its chillers even when outdoor conditions are mild. These extended runtimes present excellent opportunities for energy savings.
Consultants can improve chiller plant efficiency in a variety of ways. Some common solutions include replacing existing chillers with more efficient chillers, converting constant speed pumping systems to variable speed pumping systems through the installation of variable frequency drives (VFDs), replacing standard pump motors with premium efficiency motors, and implementing enhanced control strategies such as chilled water reset. These system modifications ultimately reduce the amount of energy needed to both generate and distribute chilled water.
Interior and Exterior Lighting
Optimizing both interior and exterior lighting is one of the most basic ways that a hospital, or any facility for that matter, can reduce its energy consumption. Since hospitals operate around the clock, lighting systems are utilized both day and night. This extended runtime creates an excellent opportunity for energy savings. Specifically, existing lighting systems that utilize fluorescent, incandescent, halogen, and/or high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps can be upgraded with LED solutions such as light fixtures, retrofit kits, and/or plug-and-play lamps. These types of solutions produce the same amount of light with significantly less power consumption, which translates into a large energy reduction once fixture runtimes are considered and savings are compounded across an entire year.
Automatic lighting controls can also provide additional energy savings in hospital environments. A commonly implemented strategy calls for dual-technology vacancy sensors switches in non-critical areas such as private offices, and storage closets. These devices allow lights to be manually turned on by someone entering a space, and then automatically shut off once the space has been vacated. Passive infrared and ultrasonic sensing technology can determine if spaces are unoccupied to prevent nuisance tripping. This approach goes a long way toward minimizing the amount of energy that is wasted on unnecessary lighting.
Air Handling Units
Because they are utilized to condition spaces that are continuously occupied by patients, visitors, and staff, hospital air handling units often consume large amounts of energy. Over time, these systems become less efficient due to their age and require extensive maintenance to keep them up and running. Energy savings can often be realized by replacing or refurbishing existing air handling units. Common refurbishment techniques include fan array installations, coil cleanings, and control system upgrades. These types of measures can provide energy savings while at the same time improving equipment reliability.
Additional Considerations
The strategies listed above are by no means an exhaustive list of energy savings opportunities. Other common ways to improve energy efficiency include replacement of failed steam traps, insulation upgrades, implementation of boiler controls, and kitchen demand control ventilation. Because every facility is different, healthcare providers and developers should partner with a consultant that can prepare a customized energy audit to propose the most impactful and cost-effective energy efficiency strategies. Even more ideal is a consultant that can also guide a project through the design and construction phases. Utilizing a single consultant throughout the entire project lifecycle may help limit the risk of miscommunication and ensure that the recommended energy efficiency measures are implemented correctly and effectively.