Both Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital and Schneider Regional Medical Center are starting energy saving retrofits right now and work is expected to get into full swing early next year, according to the V.I. Energy Office.
Work at the hospitals caps a series of territorywide energy retrofits in schools and hospitals, paid for out of a $35 million bond issuance the Legislature approved in late 2012. (See related links below)
Energy Office representatives met with the contractor, FPL Energy Services Inc. of Miami, and facility managers of the two local hospitals last week to discuss the retrofits, which will cut the hospitals power consumption and ultimately their V.I. Water and Power Authority bills.
The contract for these projects is similar to the contract with Energy Systems Group from Indianapolis for energy retrofits in 34 public schools signed earlier this year by the Department of Education.
An energy-saving, performance contract is an agreement between a building’s owner and an energy service company to guarantee energy-saving improvements. The company conducts an audit of the facility, identifying energy-saving improvements, and then designs and installs what meets the owner’s needs.
The school upgrades began when the Energy Office engineered a pilot project to retrofit 11 public schools in 2011. The project was funded by $6.7 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act grant funds. Conservation measures included water and lighting retrofits – the installation of LED lighting and high efficiency fluorescent lighting fixtures with occupancy sensors, low-flow toilets, low-flow urinals and push-button faucets.
That initial project was completed in 2011 on time and within its budget. Savings for the first year were $1.3 million. The contractor, Energy Systems Group, had guaranteed $1.2 million.
Government House previously issued a statement saying the energy savings would total at least $12 million over the next decade. Those savings will be larger as more work is done.
Plans in the latest project include, along with the two hospitals, the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center, the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute and the Virgin Islands Cardiac Center.
“The projects present an opportunity to replace large capital equipment – boilers, chillers, freezers, coolers, laundry equipment, etc.," said V.I. Energy Office Director Karl Knight in a statement. "In many instances the useful life expectancy of that equipment is nearing its end and the ability to replace them through energy savings is quite beneficial,” he said.
Besides the aforementioned measures, work at the hospitals could include the installation of combined heat and power systems and solar photovoltaic systems, but that has not been determined yet.
