Leisure, Healthcare & Communal Buildings

A new energy centre has been opened at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston that will significantly reduce the hospital’s energy costs and carbon emissions.

Energy-efficiency services provider, Cofely, has worked in partnership with United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) on the project and won a 15-year contract to operate and maintain the new energy centre. The contract incorporates a commitment to achieve, on average, a 5% energy saving each year.

The company has implemented a combination of plant renewal and ongoing energy-efficiency improvements. The new energy centre was completed in 2009 and is set to reduce the hospital’s carbon emissions by around 51%, with financial savings in the order of £210,000 per annum. This puts the Trust on course to achieve its target to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2015.

Cofely’s solution was to use a combination of low-carbon technologies that will allow the hospital to select the most cost-effective fuels as market prices change.

The design uses a 526kWe engine-based CHP solution, which is supplemented by a 2.9MW biomass steam boiler with further conventional dual fuel steam boilers. The CHP and biomass plant are used to meet base loads, while the conventional boilers are brought on stream during peak demand, as well as providing standby capacity. They would also allow the use of bio-oils if these become financially viable.

The new energy centre is the first stage of an ongoing partnership that will see Pilgrim Hospital reduce its carbon emissions significantly and many of the measures being introduced are also being evaluated for use in the Trust’s other hospitals.

www.cofely-gdfsuez.com