THUNDER BAY – A new power plant at the regional hospital is expected to save the facility $500,000 per year.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is preparing to activate their new combined heat and power plant by the end of the year, which has the potential to reduce the hospital’s electricity consumption by more than two-thirds.
The 100-foot stack piece of the plant was installed on the north side of the building Friday afternoon.
Anne-Marie Heron, the hospital’s executive director of capital planning and operations, said the plant will have long-term financial benefits.
“We’re a very high consumer of electricity so when we recognized that and the increasing power costs going forward and continuing to go forward we thought this was a great opportunity to reduce our power costs and put money back into our budgets to support direct patient care,” she said.
She added the hospital’s total annual utility bill is in the neighbourhood of $5 million.
The plant will use natural gas to power the generator to produce electricity with the heat produced by the internal combustion engine creating further efficiencies.
“We will produce up to two megawatts of energy. The resultant waste heat will be used to heat hot water and we actually use hot water in the hospital for heating,” Heron said.
“We’re also going to displace the amount of natural gas we would use for our boilers to heat the hospital. So even though we would use more natural gas for the generator we’re using less on the boiler and less power so there is a net savings.”
The $8 million project has been two years in the making and has been a joint collaboration between the hospital, Thunder Bay Hydro and Johnson Controls.
Heron said the costs of the plant, which meets the standards set in the province’s Green Energy Act, are about 40 per cent offset by the Independent Electricity System Operator, a Crown corporation that operates the Ontario electricity market and directs the operations of bulk electrical systems.
Bill Willis, Thunder Bay Hydro’s supervisor of conservation and energy services, said the energy savings will have a positive impact throughout the system.
“We are lessening the grid so we can reduce large-scale generation,” he said.
While rare in Thunder Bay, creating a generating system is something that other hospitals in Ontario have done or are in the process of developing. Similar plants are in place in hospitals in Toronto, Ottawa, London and Sudbury and North Bay is also constructing one.
Having the ability to generate power on-site allows the hospital to have energy reliance in case of emergency.
“This also allows us to supplement further power in the event of an ongoing power outage,” Heron said. “Given we’re the hub for the region this just gives us the surety we can continue to provide services to our patients in the event of an extended power outage.”
