Cleaning hospital energy usage

According to the Labour Party, sixty per cent of all the non-transport electricity and heat demand across the UK could be supplied by means that are either renewable or low-carbon by 2030.

In its ‘Expert briefing note for Labour on wind, solar and energy efficiency’, the Party sets out four key elements critical to achieving this – energy efficiency, offshore wind, onshore wind and solar power.

Labour believes the most practical and realistic ways to achieve this target is to reduce heat demand from buildings by almost one quarter; provide 85 per cent of electricity demand from renewable or low carbon sources; and provide 44 per cent of heating demand from renewable sources.

With such energy-intensive estates, are such targets feasible for NHS Trusts? As demonstrated in the Health Business Awards, there has been some great examples of hospitals reducing energy usage and becoming more sustainable in the way they operate.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) won the Sustainable Hospital Award last year for its investment in energy efficiency projects.

MFT is one of the largest Trusts in the UK, with nine hospitals across six sites, employing over 20,000 staff and treating more than two million patients every year. Embedding sustainability requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Over £400,000 has been invested in energy efficiency projects since 2017, and the trust has managed to achieve an eight per cent reduction in single occupancy car travel and a five per cent increase in active travel against a 2015 baseline. Ambitious targets of a three per cent yearly reduction in CO2 have been set in order to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust won last year’s Environmental Practice Award for its Care without Carbon framework, which is available for all NHS Trusts toparticipate in. Care Without Carbon provides a framework for developing and implementing a Sustainable Development Management Plan (SDMP). Based around seven steps, it ensures all aspects of sustainability are captured in a way that can be tailored to suit any NHS organisation.

South Tees Hospitals HNS Foundation Trust was commended in the Sustainable Hospital Award category for delivering significant carbon savings while reducing energy costs.

Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital, which currently spends around £4.5 million on energy, will be the first complex to benefit from a district heating project. The scheme plans to use some of the waste heat from local industry to warm public sector buildings, delivering significant carbon savings while reducing energy costs. Over a 40-year lifespan, the project, to be delivered in partnership with Teesside University and Middlesbrough Council, is expected to reduce the trust’s carbon footprint by 8,000 tonnes per year.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust was also commended at the Health Business Awards for its sustainability efforts. Rows of 250kw panels at the University Hospital of North Tees will generate renewable energy which can go back into powering the whole building and reduce the site’s electricity costs by around 10 per cent. The work forms part of a large scale development after successfully securing £25 million to carry out much needed investment in the trust’s infrastructure. Contractor NG Bailey is building a new energy centre on site replacing the existing boiler room and all of the electrical infrastructure.

London’s Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust meanwhile was applauded for its Combined Heat and Power plant which produces enough electricity to meet half of its energy needs and reduce the carbon dioxide emissions it produces by over 11,000tonnes, saving almost £2 million in energy costs.

A departmental tagging system has also been introduced so departments can track their waste generation and recycling rate and allows the waste team to ensure that any areas of non-compliance can be quickly addressed. It has recently recorded an 80 per cent reduction in clinical waste. University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust was commended in the Environmental Practice category for its use of combined heat and power (CHP) systems and LED Lighting.

To meet energy demand, the Trust has approved the design, installation and operation of two 800kW CHP units that will reduce annual CO2 emissions by 2,500 tonnes. In addition to generating electricity for the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital, the CHPs will provide Low Temperature Hot Water (LTHW) at Furness, and steam through a waste heat boiler at the Lancaster facility. On both sites the CHPs will be connected to the Trust HV network via a new step-up transformer and ring main unit.

£46 million funding was made available to NHS Trusts to accelerate the adoption of LED lighting in NHS hospitals towards the end of last year.

All trusts were encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to reduce both energy expenditure and carbon impact.

The NHS has significant opportunity to deliver annual savings from energy efficiency. It spends over £540 million annually on energy and interventions like this offer the opportunity not only to reduce this spend but also reduce related carbon emissions. With investment in energy efficiency projects, this could drop by as much as 10 per cent over the next 36 months as it would enable capital investment to flow into spend-to-save programmes.

LED lighting has been identified by NHS Improvement as the most effective solution to deliver savings within the timescales.

LED lighting can reduce electricity use by five to twenty per cent. It has the potential to offer carbon savings of up to 45 per cent and reduce ongoing maintenance costs. What’s more, LEDs offer better quality of lighting.

Thirty-five trusts have utilised £8.8m of Salix funding to upgrade their lighting to LED and saved around £2m annually on their energy bills.

According to data released by Centrica Business Solutions, the NHS could save at least £130 million per year by updating inefficient and outdated energy systems.

Part of a wider report that examines the potential impact of distributed energy solutions on national job creation, economic growth and productivity, the £130 million figure in savings would be enough to fund more than 4,000 nursing jobs.

NHS acute trusts nationally spend approximately £500 million a year on energy, but some experts argue that better utilisation of distributed energy solutions could help the healthcare sector to take control of their energy and turn it into an opportunity.

Jorge Pikunic, managing director at Centrica Business Solutions, said: “Our NHS is an incredible healthcare system and a source of national pride – but it’s also under intense pressure to reduce costs while delivering enhanced services. Energy has a huge role to play in that. Energy could – and should – be a force for good for the NHS, helping to create financial efficiencies and unlock opportunities to make improvements in patient care. However, it needs more support and funding to modernise its hospital estates.

“Energy technology has come a long way in the past few decades and the systems used by most hospitals across Britain can benefit from the latest energy efficient solutions and equipment. A new approach to energy could save the NHS £130 million per year – and that’s just a conservative estimate. The savings could be double this.”

www.hbawards.co.uk