CHP helps drive up fuel efficiency at Ormskirk hospital

Ormskirk District & General Hospital is benefiting from environmentally generated heating and electricity supplies following the completion of a new energy centre equipped with combined-heat-and-power plant. Built under a 30-year Private Finance Initiative energy contract with Dalkia, the scheme has provided an investment of £5.3 million in new plant. The agreement includes the operation and maintenance of the new plant to provide secure and stable future energy supplies to the hospital. This 174-bed hospital is part of Southport & Ormskirk Hospital Trust, which sought this investment as the steam-raising boiler plant was at the end of its operational life. Using funding through the PFI scheme under the NHS Procure21 initiative, the trust can focus its capital budget on patient care and gain climate-change levy exemption by using CHP. To provide heating, hot water and electricity, the hospital’s existing boilerhouse has been replaced by a new facility elsewhere on the site. The new energy centre houses a 1 MW gas-fired CHP unit coupled to a waste-heat boiler and two new gas-fired boilers to provide hot water. There is also a new control system and standby generators. Dalkia will provide 24-hour operation and maintenance for the next 30 years. To date, Dalkia has invested around £50 million through PFI in energy plant for over 50 hospitals in the UK.

Related links:

• www.dalkia.co.uk