Cost of energy to resiliency: Three top-of-mind topics for health care facility professionals

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Most successful companies have a marketing, product or supply chain strategy, but there is one more important area to consider when wanting to maximize profit; an energy management strategy. Today, a well-planned energy management strategy can help health care organizations improve their financials. Moreover, making the right energy choices also help organizations improve the reliability of their operations and advance their sustainability efforts. 

Given the importance of energy in health care, let’s cover three top of mind topics associated with energy for health care professionals. 

No. 1: Cost of energy continues to be a critical lever to deliver superior financials for health care facilities

Today’s modern health care facilities are not only tech marvels, but intense users of energy. In fact, hospitals are identified as the type of building with the second highest energy use intensity (EUI) by Energy Star1. A median size hospital would use over 12 times more energy than an average size office building. 

Healthcare - Cost of energy to resiliency
Health care facilities such as hospitals and medical offices have high energy use intensity. 

With this, it is no surprise the top two topics C-suite executives are most interested to learn about are cost control and expense reduction, according to Becker Hospital Review2. As this trend on cost control continues, health care facility leaders will increasingly be rewarded in their efforts to cut down energy costs. 

Typically, a health care facility acquires energy in the form of electricity from the power grid and separately burns natural gas to produce heat or steam. Purchasing electricity from the grid brings the advantage of convenience but at a significant cost for the health care facility. This cost is due to the inefficiencies in centrally producing the electricity and distributing it through large geographies. 

Healthcare - Inefficiencies in energy waste
Inefficiencies and energy waste in centralized generation result in higher energy costs for customers.

In comparison, on-site combined heat and power (CHP) applications can offer 70% to 90% efficiency while delivering electricity and heat to the facility. This heat and steam are commonly used for sterilizing medical instruments, keeping patients and staff at a comfortable temperature and maintaining facilities’ humidity level. Some facilities, such as Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, also pursue tri-generation to further improve energy efficiency. Tri-generation systems produce cooling in addition to heating and electricity offered by CHP applications.

This increase in efficiency could translate into an energy savings up to 35% for the health care facility, depending upon size and facility structure. Health care facilities with access to natural gas can take advantage of CHP applications with lean-burn engine generators that use natural gas as the fuel to produce electricity, heat and steam. These systems could be as small as 300 kilowatts or as large as several megawatts. For instance, a Sydney hospital partnered with Cummins on a cogeneration plant providing 4 megawatts electric of base load power to improve energy efficiency and to meet emission targets.

No. 2: Health care facilities can improve financial performance and resiliency with emerging power system technologies such as microgrids

Did you know that average U.S. electricity customer disruption was over seven hours in 2017, almost doubling the average disruption in 20163? Take a look at how changing weather patterns impact our grid and cause more power outages. Most health care facilities are legally required to have emergency back-up power systems. These systems provide peace of mind and security for the facility and its patrons but are also costly assets that might sit idle for most of the time. 

Facility leaders that aim to have superior financial performance are leveraging microgrids to monetize their energy assets, including existing emergency back-up power systems. A microgrid is a local energy grid with control capability, which means it can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously4. Microgrids commonly feature advanced control systems and software to track electricity prices and usage at the facility, and they decide whether to buy electricity from the grid or to produce it on-site through the microgrid assets. In summary, micro-grids convert the existing on-site power generation systems into financial enablers for the facility leaders. 

Facility leaders can also leverage microgrids for resiliency purposes. Microgrids take the resiliency of traditional emergency back-up power systems to the next level by integrating additional energy assets to the existing back-up power system. These additional energy assets could be electricity sources, such as solar photovoltaics and CHP generators, storage assets such as batteries, and control systems and software. Integration of additional assets creates redundancy in electricity generation and increases the resiliency of the system. 

No. 3: Health care facility leaders leverage digitization of power systems to manage their facilities

There is substantial news coverage on penetration of digitization in health care with respect to patient experience. On the other hand, not everybody sees the impact of digitization in health care with respect to facility management. 

While building management systems (BMS) have been around for decades, today’s BMS are ever more digitized as sub-systems ranging from heating and ventilation equipment to power systems being digitized. 

Digitization is also changing how health care facility professionals do their jobs; being more focused on preventative actions driven by rich analytics to avoid potential future issues. They are also increasingly partnering with vendors beyond a purchase transaction or service event. 

Let’s take health care power systems as an example. Modern remote monitoring systems such as Cummins PowerCommand Cloud help facility teams reduce downtime by providing teams remote access to make decisions and act on them quickly. Moreover, facility teams can partner with a local Cummins distributor, which can handle routine issues remotely and mitigate potentially serious situations by scheduling proactive service calls based on the data they see. 

In summary, health care facility leaders focused on financial gains could explore CHP applications to cut their energy costs, and microgrids to monetize their on-site power generation assets. Facility leaders focused on resiliency should also learn more about health care microgrid applications. 

To learn more about trends in the health care industry follow Cummins on Facebook and connect on LinkedIn. To learn more about power solutions for the health care industry, visit our web page. To learn more about how Cummins is powering a world that’s “Always On,” visit our web page.

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References: 
1 EnergyStar Portfolio Manager Energy Use Benchmarking. [PDF file]. n.d. (2012, October). Retrieved August 18th, 2019 from https://www.energystar.gov/ 
2 Lazerow, R. (2018, July 11). What 146 C-suite executives told Advisory Board about their shift in priorities this year. Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/
3 n.d. (2019, July 31). Annual Electric Power Industry Report, Form EIA-861. Retrieved from https://www.eia.gov/ 
4 Lantero, A. (2014, June 17). How Microgrids Work. Retrieved from https://www.energy.gov/

 

Aytek Yuksel - Cummins Inc

Aytek Yuksel

Aytek Yuksel is the Content Marketing Leader for Cummins Inc., with a focus on Power Systems markets. Aytek joined the Company in 2008. Since then, he has worked in several marketing roles and now brings you the learnings from our key markets ranging from industrial to residential markets. Aytek lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with his wife and two kids.

Cummins Custompaks are being used for water management as Thailand struggles with its water crisis

CustomPak on site

Water crisis

Sixty Cummins Inc. CustomPaks are in service in Thailand as part of a critical water management plan aimed at easing the country’s water crisis – a crisis that has caused enormous economic and social damage and stirred conflict among communities.

Over the past several decades, Thailand has continually faced water problems caused by severe drought. Water reserves in dams and reservoirs are insufficient while water resources are often contaminated with toxins caused by urban communities and the industrial and agricultural sectors.

Severe flooding is a threat, too, at a time when the realities of climate change are hanging over the country.

As a result, the allocation of precious water resources, which must be shared among various stakeholders including new and existing industry, large and small agriculture, and cities and villages has become a flashpoint.

Kittithanapat Engineering Co. (KTP), has been involved in the water management system since 1996, working closely with authorities such as the Royal Irrigation Department, Department of Water Resources, Bangkok Metropolitan Authority and others.

CustomPaks on site

600 hp CustomPaks

To help KTP meet its often urgent requirements, Cummins DKSH (Thailand) has recently supplied 60 Australian-built CustomPaks – 45 powered by Cummins’ X15 engine rated at 600 hp, and 15 powered by the QSL9 rated at 325 hp. These fully self-contained powerpacks are emissions certified to Tier 3.

The CustomPaks are coupled to hydraulically-driven, large-volume submersible water pumps sourced by KTP from US company Moving Water Industries (MWI); KTP is the exclusive distributor in Thailand for these MWI Hydroflo pumps.

Prior to Cummins’ involvement, KTP was using another diesel engine brand but service support wasn’t up to the standard required.

Long-serving KTP engineer Kittisak Thanasoot says Cummins DKSH’s reputation for technical and aftersales support along with the reliability of the Cummins product were a key reason behind KTP’s decision to specify the CustomPaks for the Royal Irrigation Department.

The ability of Cummins DKSH to respond to short delivery times was also important.

“Supplying large quantities of high horsepower diesel engines for emergency situations such as flash flooding can be a challenge for KTP,” says Kittisak Thanasoot.

“Responding to the needs of the government agencies to manage such problems in a timely manner and with least impact on communities, KTP has found the answer in our partnership with Cummins DKSH.”

Power, pride and passion

Parked semi truck

The switch back to Cummins power has been beneficial for iconic New Zealand company Uhlenberg Haulage. It's all about whole-of-life costs.

Uhlenberg Haulage is closing in on 60 years in business, having been founded in 1966 by Mike and Carol Uhlenberg.

Based in Eltham, Taranaki, in New Zealand’s North Island, the operation is today owned and operated by their sons Chris, Daryl and Tony Uhlenberg.

Describing the Uhlenbergs as “old school family truckies”, Daryl talks about the company’s time-honored journey with a definite tone of pride, especially the work of his parents in laying the foundations for what is today an iconic fleet in its own right.

Cummins Inc. made its debut in the Uhlenberg fleet in 1971 with an NH250 powering a second-hand Kenworth K923 used in logging. A second Kenworth, a new W924 with a Cummins NTC335, followed soon after hauling an LPG tanker.

The Uhlenberg operation today comprises 40 prime movers and a variety of trailing gear to cater for the myriad of a jobs the fleet is involved in.

A number of Peterbilts feature in the fleet although Kenworth is now the brand of choice with six new units to be delivered over the next 12 months to cater for business growth.

Cummins’ X15 Euro 5 engine rated at 550 or 600 hp is the preferred power specification, with 18 red engines currently in the fleet.

Uhlenberg family in front of truck

Whole-of-life support

“The switch to Cummins has been a very good experience for us. We have nothing but praise for the Cummins organization,” says Daryl.

“The whole-of-life picture is the key thing for us and we’ve got that nailed with the support we get from Cummins – parts availability, scheduled maintenance, life expectancy and in-frame rebuilds.

“So the red engines turn up, we run them to life, which is 900,000 to 1.2 million kilometers, and then Cummins does an in-frame overhaul in a timely manner. If there’s an issue, parts and support are close by.

“The support we get from Cummins Palmerston North is fantastic, second to none.”

Daryl recently looked under a Kenworth that was in the workshop for a service and was surprised to see no oil leaking from the one-million-kilometer X15. “I remember when I was a fitter we had to wear a raincoat when working under a truck,” he jokes.

Fuel agnostic

Acknowledging that the push to decarbonize is now “very real”, Daryl likes the idea of Cummins’ fuel agnostic concept where one base internal combustion engine, optimized to run on diesel, can also be customized to run on ultra-low and zero-carbon fuels like renewable natural gas and hydrogen.

“My father was a pioneer of linehaul trucking in New Zealand and he always embraced new technology. He was never scared of it,” he says.

“I tend to be a little more cautious but I can see where a 500 hp natural gas or hydrogen engine would work for us in short haul applications,” he admits. “We’re certainly willing to look closely at these alternative fuel technologies when suitable infrastructure is in place.”

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