Andalusia’s hospitals and health centres reduce their energy consumption thanks to various energy-efficiency projects

The Managing Director of Industry, Energy and Mines at the Regional Government of Andalusia, Natalia González, and the General Manager of the Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation, Martí Solà, opened a seminar in Seville today, entitled Energy efficiency in hospitals and health centres. The event brought together more than 120 professionals, during which several experts highlighted the areas for improving energy efficiency in Andalusia's health centres.

The Deputy Director of the Area of Health-Centre Services and Management at Andalusia's Health Service, Antonio Olivares, presented the improvements to energy efficiency carried out in Andalusia's health sector and emphasised the important collaboration being made with Andalusia's Energy Agency to take on major transformation projects to reduce energy consumption. He highlighted the economic and environmental advantages that came with incorporating natural gas as an energy source, including the expansion of the natural gas network through most of Andalusia.

The Technical Director of Ingho Facility Management, Manuel Gallardo, presented an overview of the innovative technologies available for introducing energy-efficiency improvements to Andalusia's hospitals and health centres.

Examples of energy efficiency in Andalusia's hospital sector

The Maintenance-Service Manager at the Granada Hospital Complex, Jesús Árbol, spoke about his experience with the centre's trigeneration plant, which covered the electricity, heating and cooling needs of the hospital buildings by using natural gas as the primary energy source. It was thanks to this installation that the energy bill had gone down 12% over the last ten years and greenhouse-gas emissions significantly reduced.

The Maintenance Service Manager at that Jerez Hospital's the North Cadiz Health Management Area, Pablo Bueno, explained the project to improve the roofing of the centre's patient-care buildings and the full replacement of the thermal power plant with a new one equipped with 8,760 kW of power to produce hot water, heating and steam, using renewable energy to produce hot water. He pointed out the notable improvements to energy efficiency achieved, which enabled a more than 18% reduction in CO2 emissions as well as annual economic savings on fuel costs of over 250,000 euros.

The Maintenance Service Manager at the La Axarquía Hospital, Pedro Quintero, explained the hospital’s various strategies, modifications and projects to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption. Quintero described the operation of the new natural gas boilers, the solar thermal installation and the trigeneration plant installed, which enabled the hospital to reduce CO2 emissions by 400 Tm/year (between 2008 and 2016) and reduce energy consumption by 1 GW/h each year.

Finally, the Maintenance Service Manager at the Antequera Hospital's North Málaga Health Management Area, Jesús Ariza, summarised the energy improvements implemented at the hospital, mostly in collaboration with Andalusia's Energy Agency. The actions were primarily focused on implementing efficiency measures in hospital lighting, changing the variable flow in cooling water distribution and improving auxiliary services, as well as establishing a strategy to control air conditioning production. All that led to a reduction in energy consumption of around 0.7 GW/year (12.3% of the installation's total consumption).

The seminar was closed by Managing Director of Andalusia's Energy Agency, Cristóbal Sánchez, the Director General for Economic Management and Services at Andalusia's Health Service, Horacio Pijuán, and the Director General of the Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation, Martí Solà.