The company said that the 4.3MW facility is located on-site and will help ensure that area residents have uninterrupted access to health care during outages caused by a severe storm or other event.
Because the South Energy Center was built on-site, it can function as an island, separate from the traditional electric grid. The facility is a combined heat and power plant in the Southeast capable of providing a hospital’s energy needs. The plant will also supply the cancer hospital with all of its heating, cooling and medical gas needs.
Bob Hunzinger, general manager of GRU, said: “We are pleased to partner with Shands HealthCare in this exciting medical project that will benefit the entire community and region. Our partnership is mutually beneficial to both parties and is a logical extension of our traditional model for distribution and generation of electricity.”
GRU said that the new facility will be efficient at converting fuel into electricity, providing a 46% savings over traditional fossil fuel-burning generation.
The level of efficiency is achieved, in part, by capturing the hot exhaust from the turbine and using it to produce steam that is then used to run the hospital’s heating and cooling systems.
Tim Goldfarb, CEO of Shands HealthCare, said: “Our partnership with GRU has resulted in very creative, forward-thinking solutions to energy challenges. Together, our companies focused on progressive energy-saving practices and developed a best-practice model that will benefit our community and hopefully others as well.”
Engineering, architecture and construction firm Burns & McDonnell designed and built the energy center. GRU will own and operate the facility for 50 years under the terms of the agreement and will occupy the land under a 99-year lease.
