Scarborough and Rouge Hospital (SRH) has received a rebate from Toronto Hydro of $51,000 for the hospital’s work to improve energy efficiency at its General site.
“We’re grateful to Toronto Hydro for recognizing our hospital’s commitment to sustainably reduce our electricity consumption,” said Rick Gowrie, Vice President, Capital Planning and Facilities Operations at SRH.
Since 2016, SRH has partnered with Toronto Hydro to assess opportunities for energy savings. As a result of this collaboration, 35 Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) were installed at the General site on strategic air handling systems. Through sensors and software scheduling, the VFDs are able to vary the air handling system or shut it down completely when there is low or no occupancy in certain areas of the hospital.
“These VFDs have allowed SRH to reduce electricity use at the General site by nearly three Giga-watt hours, representing a 12 per cent drop in the site’s overall electricity consumption per year. This amounts to a year-over-year savings of approximately $400,000 and is the equivalent of removing 65 compact cars off the road every year,” said Jana Jedlovska, Key Account Consultant, at Toronto Hydro.
“This is a substantial reduction for the hospital and they should be proud of their work towards energy efficiency and savings.”
The project was undertaken with a very small capital investment from SRH of $80,000. The $51,000 rebate from Toronto Hydro was used to fund the rest of the initiative.
“In addition to making our community that much healthier, reducing the energy consumption of our sites allows us to redirect funds that would have been used to pay for utilities towards patient care,” added Schubert Martin, Manager of Facilities who headed up the project.
“We’re looking forward to deploying similar energy efficiency measures at our other sites, while also expanding our focus to reduce the hospital’s use of water and gas.”