April 14, 2003—Chino Valley Medical Center, a 126-bed hospital east of Los Angeles, California, expects to save thousands of dollars each month in energy costs with a new on-site power system that will supply 75 percent of the hospital’s electrical and thermal energy.
The environmentally conscious hospital, working to keep costs low and ensure round-the-clock power availability to combat California’s energy crisis, determined last year that an on-site power system is the best option to meet its aggressive energy-management plans.
The hospital’s on-site power system includes communication and monitoring software, engine controls, and electrical grid-interconnection switchgear from Encorp.
The combined-heat-and-power—or co-generation—system is more efficient than conventional on-site power units. In addition to generating electricity when needed, the system will use waste engine heat—often considered an unusable byproduct of an on-site power system—to make hot water. The hospital, in turn, will use the hot water for laundry, sterilization, and other uses.
Powered by three BluePoint Energy Lean-One 260 kW Cogeneration Systems, the hospital’s new on-site system will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and supplement power from Southern California Edison.
US Power Network, a national network of private power plants that supply less-expensive electrical power and thermal energy to customers, will own and operate the three BluePoint Lean-One Co-generation Systems and sell electricity the systems produce to the hospital at a rate lower than the local utility.
For more information visit Encorp or call 888/295-4141.
