Healthcare Design - June/July 2023 - 26

ARE ELECTRIC HOSPITALS THE
ANSWER?
Valley Children's Hospital, Madera, Calif.
Located in a rural part of
Central California, Valley
Children's Healthcare,
which delivers care to
more than 1.3 million
children, regularly faces
the threat of rolling blackouts,
unsteady water
supplies, and wildfi res.
This volatility impacts the
organization's ability
to deliver services at its
358-bed standalone
Valley Children's Hospital
in Madera, Calif., as
well as its specialty and
primary care practices.
" Our doors need to stay
open because these kids
don't have anywhere
else to go, " says Danielle
Barry, chief operating offi
cer at Valley Children's,
adding that the hospital
has a 45,000-mile catchment
area.
About two years ago,
the organization began
working with Mazzetti
(San Francisco) to address
its aging infrastructure
and improve the
resilience of its facilities
while also reducing
operational costs. The
healthcare organization
had already taken some
steps on its own, such as
procuring the cheapest
" dirty electricity " (produced
by fossil fuels) possible
to keep operating
26
JUNE/JULY 2023
costs down. Additionally,
in an effort to address its
water needs (wells are
used for its water supply),
Valley Children's had
been acquiring property
near its main campus in
Madera to obtain more
water rights in the state.
As Mazzetti began
studying Valley Children's
assets and facilities as
well as future growth
plans, it saw an opportunity
to utilize that land as
a solution to its resiliency
needs. Specifi cally, the
fi rm decided to install
a renewable energy
microgrid that comprises
solar photovoltaic panels,
fuel cells, and battery
storage, combined with
their existing generators.
Valley Children's was
ready to move forward
on the project last year,
when the Infl ation Reduction
Act was announced
in August 2022, which
offers fi nancial savings
and tax incentives for
energy security and climate
change programs.
Additionally, the project
team took the opportunity
to partner with the California
Energy Commission
to apply for an approximately
$45 million grant
from the U.S. Department
of Energy to enhance the
microgrid project with
new battery technology.
It will help provide additional
energy storage
to improve the hospital's
ability to withstand long
duration outages. It will
also lessen the load on
the utility grid, helping it
to better serve the needs
of the growing area.
" We want the hospital to
be able to operate for a
long time with no external
power, " Vernon says. " If
we win this grant, it will
help us do that and show
that it's possible. "
Scheduled to be
operational by 2025,
the microgrid will be the
main power source for
the campus, with back-up
power available from the
local utility and a diesel
generator plant. The
microgrid will also get
Valley Children's to its
goal of reducing its greenhouse
gas emissions by
50 percent by 2030 as
part of the White House
and Department of Health
and Human Services'
Health Sector Climate
Pledge. " It was a cost
reduction and resilience
project that happened to
decarbonize the hospital
and improve the health of
the community, " Vernon
says.-AD
HCDMAGAZINE.COM
One idea gaining momentum on the path to decarbonization
in healthcare is electrification,
which replaces technologies that use fossil fuels
with ones that use electricity as a source of energy.
Specifically, more healthcare systems are
looking to replace boilers or water heaters with
heat pump systems for domestic water heating
and space heating. This equipment helps eliminate
a big source of Scope 1 emissions for healthcare
facilities-burning fossil fuel (usually natural
gas) for heat. " Reducing or eliminating the
use of natural gas not only avoids the carbon dioxide
from the combustion process, but also the
leakage of the potent greenhouse gas methane,
which is a big component of natural gas, " Shinn
says. Where steam is still needed, such as in sterile
processing, facilities can utilize small steam
generators to serve specific departments and
run the equipment only when steam is needed
as opposed to a central steam system that covers
the entire hospital.
Some are already moving the industry toward
this goal. For example, the all-electric UCI Medical
Center Irvine-Newport in California, expected
to open in 2025, will feature an essential
utilities plant that does not rely on carbon combustion
or natural gas. Mazzetti, a decarbonization,
technology, financial, and engineering
consulting firm specializing in healthcare, has
been working with clients to develop and implement
sustainable strategies. The firm recently
released the California Energy Commission's
A Guidebook for Decarbonizing Healthcare with
technology, design, and finance strategies to
help healthcare organizations minimize natural
gas use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
One of the authors, Walt Vernon, CEO at Mazzetti
(San Francisco), says there are several challenges
to overcome in the shift to electrifi cation,
including regulatory obstacles. " The National
Electrical Code contains demand factors that
are decades old and don't refl ect today's reality, "
he says. This results in facilities being required
to build electrical systems that are signifi cantly
larger than needed. " We're spending money we
don't need to spend, and electrification is more
expensive than it needs to be, " he says.
Another issue is emergency power requireRIGHT
TIMING
DEEMERWHA
STUDIO STOCK.ADOBE.COM; VALLEY CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE (SIDEBAR)
http://STOCK.ADOBE.COM http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM

Healthcare Design - June/July 2023

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Healthcare Design - June/July 2023 - Cover1
Healthcare Design - June/July 2023 - Cover2
Healthcare Design - June/July 2023 - 1
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