Healthcare facilities are among the most energy-intensive in the world due to large heating and cooling loads as well as power requirements for critical medical equipment. In fact, the healthcare sector accounts for 4.4% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Meanwhile, advances in medical technology are pushing energy consumption higher, putting pressure on both operational budgets and sustainability goals. To address their energy challenges, healthcare organizations are increasingly more open to all-electric hospital designs that deliver cost savings and operational benefits with relatively fast payback.
The transition to all-electric hospitals represents a strategic shift and marks a major departure from not only traditional technologies but operating practices as well. Key success factors include investments in underlying digitalization technologies, microgrid infrastructure, and phased implementation allowing for staff training and system optimization.
Why go electric?
Energy costs are climbing with some hospitals seeing their electricity bills jump by 25% or more. In an energy-intensive sector like healthcare, a shift of this magnitude demands bold action. But while sustainability goals play a role for many healthcare organizations, hospitals will only undergo comprehensive electrification with a sound cost basis in place. Government tax credits and utility rebates offer some incentive, but the business case is primarily made by reducing operational costs over the long term.
What does converting a hospital’s energy consumption to electricity mean in this context? Schneider Electric estimates that electrification increases demand by 2 – 2.5 times that of the original design and can be even higher in more extreme climates. This includes major up-front CapEx investments that reach every part of the organization. Fortunately, going all-electric has a strong rationale thanks to significant reductions in OpEx spending over the long term, typically paying back within five years.
Electrification also yields reductions in maintenance, reduces the risk of catastrophic equipment failure (and associated risks to hospital staff), and dramatically lowers CO2 emissions. One Pacific Northwest hospital estimated a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the 25 years following electrification.
All-electric hospitals are well positioned to integrate renewable generation, energy storage, and participation in demand response programs that reduce utility bills. Once fully electrified, health systems can also upgrade equipment (e.g., to fuel cells for backup power) and increase capacity with minimal changes to the facility infrastructure.
Beyond cost savings
Putting aside cost for the moment, there are other aspects of electrification that hospitals must address. The first is simple but significant: space. All-electric infrastructure may need 20-30 percent more mechanical and electrical equipment space compared to traditional fossil fuel-based systems supporting the same facility. That may be a challenge for hospitals in densely populated areas or in dated facilities.
There is also the issue of single utility dependency, but hospitals can mitigate this with microgrid design and redundancy planning to ensure continuity of operations in the event of a grid outage. A related concern is safety with on-site battery energy storage systems, which may require modifications to fire protection and life safety systems. Both issues are easily addressed with technical solutions and experienced design partners.
Beyond technology, it’s easy to overlook the non-technical challenges such as technology adoption and meeting expectations of management, oversight bodies, and regulators. The key in this case is a phased approach to implementation that provides robust training and support as well as performance monitoring systems to ensure targets are met. This is one area where an energy technology partner can make a significant difference.
Energy efficiency transforms operations
It’s hard to overestimate the variety of ways all-electric systems impact not only cost but operational efficiency. Let’s start with the building itself.
Automation is a cornerstone of building efficiency. Automated building controls as well as digital twin simulations and energy modeling tools help hospitals to better understand their energy usage and implement efficiency-improving measures accordingly. Schneider Electric’s work in automation within healthcare environments has shown that significant improvements always begin with a clear picture of the facility’s current energy consumption.
Hospitals have a multitude of end-use applications that can further drive impact. Occupancy sensors, patient room controls, LED lighting, electric kitchens, electric sterilizing equipment, optimized EV charging systems for ambulances, staff and visitors, and more—each of these represents an opportunity to permanently reduce consumption.
Supply-side strategies
Obviously, energy use is only one side of the equation. Going electric has many implications on the supply side as well. Implementing on-site renewable generation and energy storage enables hospitals to reduce dependency on the grid. Shifting load is another way to reduce cost, in this case with little or no CapEx, by leveraging time-of-use utility rates and optimizing the mix of on-site vs. grid-supplied power.
Where appropriate, health systems can participate in utility demand response programs and even provide voltage support (i.e., ancillary services) back to the grid by leveraging their on-site generation and storage assets to create a new revenue stream without compromising reliability.
All these opportunities are facilitated by a microgrid that automates and optimizes the facility’s energy systems based on real-time conditions. These local power networks, which operate in either grid-connected or “islanded” modes, maintain continuous operations and integrate any type of generation, now or in the future.
Making electrification work
Transitioning to an all-electric infrastructure is a major, high visibility undertaking for any healthcare organization. It’s essential that the project delivers on its potential. That begins by engaging with hospital staff, energy technology providers, contractors, design firms and facilities teams first to understand how the facility functions today and what the goals for electrification are. From there, project teams can begin to look for opportunities to optimize.
One of the most important aspects of electrification for any decision maker to understand is the importance of data. It’s the great enabler, providing the inputs required for control and optimization of all aspects of the facility’s energy systems. Transitioning to an all-electric approach usually implies a significant up-front investment in the hospital’s digital systems’ design. Marshalling the available data and identifying new sources that are needed is another way that an experienced technology provider can ensure healthcare systems get the best results from their digitalization investments.
As we’ve seen, there is a compelling rationale for the all-electric hospital that is driven primarily but not exclusively by cost savings. The benefits are real, and the healthcare industry is taking notice. Major health systems like Kaiser Permanente, UCI Health and the University of California, San Francisco hospital are making all-electric the standard for new construction with multiple projects in various stages of completion. Given the availability and rapid advancement of the enabling technologies, it’s likely these early adopters will soon be joined by other healthcare organizations looking to ready their facilities for an optimized future.
Discover how Schneider Electric helps healthcare leaders design smarter, all-electric hospitals—powered by advanced energy technologies.
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