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City Hospitals Sunderland will dramatically cut carbon emissions and energy costs by installing a 1.55MW combined heat and power (CHP) system from cogeneration specialist ENER-G (www.energ.co.uk).
Sunderland Royal Hospital is a 970-bed acute hospital run by City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust and offers a full range of clinical specialisms and therapies.
The hospital is targeted to recover the £600,000 capital cost of its new CHP system in less than three years. The Trust has also installed three high efficiency water boilers, replacing old steam boilers. The entire installation will make carbon savings of approximately 3447 tonnes per year – equivalent to the environmental benefit of 344,700 trees.
The CHP system generates electricity and recovers the majority of the heat created in the process. In conventional power stations this heat is simply wasted into the atmosphere through power station cooling towers and much energy is also lost along the many miles of electrical distribution cables needed to bring the power to site. Instead, the CHP system will generate electricity on site, as well as creating heat that will be used to provide heating, steam and hot water for the Royal Sunderland.
The new system replaces a gas turbine powered CHP unit, supplied by ENER-G 16 years ago. This latest project follows the installation by ENER-G of CHP systems at major hospitals including Birmingham Heartlands, Solihull Hospital and the Royal Shrewsbury.
CHP – the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heat that is almost twice as efficient as conventional power generation is a proven energy-efficient technology that can transform environmental and cost performance. It is growing in popularity amid increasing economic pressure, regulatory concerns, and fears over security of supply.
As Europe’s biggest employer, the NHS contributes approximately 3% of England’s total carbon dioxide emissions, so there is a powerful need to implement effective carbon abatement strategies like CHP. A political mandate has now been set through proposals for a new Carbon Reduction Strategy that commits the service as a whole to reducing emissions by 60% by 2050. The potential for CHP use in the NHS is huge.
Sunderland Royal’s top-end CHP system is among the first installations in Europe by ENER-G of its new 1.55MW MTU unit powered by a natural gas engine. This comprises a 16v gas generator set with LV generation that is transformed to 11kV in a transformer for connection to the site.
The new MTU reciprocating unit develops 1550KWe, compared to the 1050KWe output of the hospital’s previous gas turbine engine.
The outgoing gas turbine power unit has enabled carbon savings of around 30,000 tonnes over 16-years.
ENER-G engineering coordinator, Ian Rutherford, has been responsible for the power unit at Sunderland Royal CHP unit for 16 years. He commented: “The outgoing turbine machinery was a fantastic piece of engineering and I will be sorry to see it go. However, the new reciprocating engine represents the latest advances in technology and is more economical from an operational point of view.”
George Hood, divisional director for estates and facilities at Sunderland Royal Hospital added: “This latest installation complements a whole range of investment made by the Trust in energy saving/sustainability over the last 20 years and the Trust has already delivered its ten year 2010 energy efficiency target of existing buildings.
“The Trust welcomes the new NHS target of reducing its carbon footprint by 60% by 2050 and this latest CHP installation will give us a very good start to achieving this target”.
For more information contact:
Zita Pálosi, Marketing Services Manager
ENER-G
ENER-G House, Daniel Adamson Road, Salford MANCHESTER M50 1DT
T: +44 (0)161 745 7450 F: +44 (0)161 745 7457 E: marketing@energ.co.uk W: www.energ.co.uk
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