A new CHP-based Energy Centre completed in 2010 at London’s King’s College Hospital helped the south London facility cut its overall carbon emissions by 12% in the first financial year of operation, and reduce by £254,000 its energy costs over the same period, reports HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie.
Based on the experience gained during the first year’s operation, subsequent ‘fine tuning’ of the plant by Dalkia – the company which designed and managed the Energy Centre’s construction, and is now operating and maintaining it under a 15-year contract with the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – saw site CO2 emissions at the hospital reduced by 550 tonnes more in the first seven months of the 2011-2012 financial year than in the corresponding period the previous year, enabling the Trust to achieve its 374-tonne 2011-2012 carbon reduction target with five months to spare.
King’s College Hospital in Denmark Hill is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching hospitals, with nearly 7,000 staff providing around one million patient contacts a year. The 949- bed hospital has ‘a unique profile’, in that it not only offers a full range of local hospital services for people in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, but also specialist services for patients from significantly further afield. The Trust is recognised internationally for its work in treating liver disease, and its expertise in transplantation, neurosciences, cardiac surgery and care, haemato-oncology, and stroke and major trauma. The numerous buildings on the sizeable site include 46 wards, plus surgeries and theatres, clinics, a dental institute, an education centre, and residences. The new Energy Centre, which was officially opened by Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker, on 15 November 2010, was much needed because although the site – parts of which date back to the early 20th century – has been under continuous development in response to changes in strategic planning and medical practices, only limited improvements had previously been made to the boiler house and utilities systems. The hospital was also under growing pressure, given the implementation of the Carbon Reduction Commitment and stringent EU and UK-imposed energy reduction legislation, to reduce its energy consumption and, by association, its carbon footprint.
Existing Edwardian-built plant room
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