High Profile
April 25, 2017
Summary
Boston Medical Center (BMC) is now generating much of its own electricity and heat through a natural gas-fired, 2-megawatt combined heat and power plant (CHP, or cogen), further enhancing BMC’s standing as the most resilient and greenest hospital in Boston.
The cogen facility — about the size of a tractor-trailer — will save BMC about $1.5 million in heat and energy costs annually. Traditional power plants, which release excess heat into the atmosphere, operate at about 35% efficiency. Cogen technology, which instead traps and reuses the heat, operates at 70% efficiency.
BMC is the only major teaching hospital in Massachusetts that currently has “black start” capability, meaning that if the electric grid goes down, the hospital can restart the cogen plant and heat and power its inpatient units on an “island” for months at a time, as long as it has a supply of natural gas. The cogen plant, which became operational this spring, is also located on the roof of the Yawkey Ambulatory Care Center, high above any potential floodwaters.
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