Glendale Water & Power needed their largest customer to reduce demand and energy usage. Adventist Healthcare wanted to reduce costs, but was facing major seismic upgrades required by the state.

The campus had been built out over many years. As such, nothing seemed to work together. On top of that, the seismic upgrades necessitated a new hospital tower to replace an existing smaller building on the campus and the architect wanted to add yet another standalone chiller system. What to do and where to prioritize?  3FFICIENT engineers were brought in to sort it all out. 3FFICIENT conducted multiple interviews, looked at campus plans and completed a thorough energy analysis. Along the way, several low cost operational improvements were identified along with numerous deferred maintenance and much needed capital improvements. 3FFICIENT worked closely with the local utilities and the state to develop financial and operational partnerships that would allow the hospital to implement the high efficiency energy and demand management improvements while still being able to afford the required seismic upgrades.

This project was completed over several years and included many retrofits and upgrades: lighting, compressed air, HVAC constant volume to variable air volume conversions, high efficiency motors, creating a virtual central chiller plant including replacing old chillers and cooling towers, replacing old boilers, installing peak shaving cogen system and a new energy management system to keep it all working together. Because of 3FFICIENT’s involvement, it turned out to be a return on investment of 34% instead of a huge cost. The total project value of $8.2 Million was reduced by $4 Million worth of grants, incentives and avoided repairs. Annual energy and operational savings are more than $1,317,634 per year (based on 2001 rates).

Environmental Benefits:

  • Annual Energy Savings: 1,641 kW; 10,919,286 kWh; 73,675 Therms; 14,652 Gal Water
  • Annual Emissions Savings: 10,347,359 lbs CO2 (GHG); 18,416 lbs NOx (smog); 20,531 lbs SO2 (acid rain)
  • Equivalent to planting 15,421 trees each year
  • Equivalent to not driving 11,318,416 miles in a car annually
  • Equivalent to powering 970 large homes with renewable energy

“You guys sure turned our master planning upside down (in a positive way). It looks like we’ll be a lot more efficient and provide service much more reliably than we have in the past and save more money than each year before.” Mike Swanson, Director of Operations (retired), Glendale Adventist Medical Center