Elevating energy for a growing hospital system

GOAL

Assist a health care giant in navigating
a complex energy landscape.

SOLUTION

A custom, resilient, power approach based on an extensive evaluation of energy needs.

PROJECT

A comprehensive strategy combining smarter energy solutions

Houston Methodist enlists our experts to reliably power its seven hospitals while reducing electricity usage and spend.

Powering medical innovations

Since its founding in 1919, Houston Methodist Hospital has led the medical community with innovative research and exemplary care. Over the years, it has expanded its mission to serve even greater numbers of patients, while also combating the rising cost of personnel, services, and utilities. Increasingly, Houston Methodist Hospital needed to institute a greater level of savings across the organization while elevating patient care. With an aging power infrastructure and a high priority on resiliency, the hospital system needed an energy partner who could construct a custom solution to meet their needs.

Combining smarter solutions

Since 2013, we have worked alongside Houston Methodist Hospital as it expanded facilities, added locations, and faced challenges from new legislation, which restricted their ability to rely on existing assets for various load management programs. This healthcare leader has an intricate set of energy needs, from powering high-tech medical devices to maintaining operations for its sprawling campus. Our team of energy experts worked with Houston Methodist leadership to map their power needs to tangible solutions that focused on cost, resiliency, and efficiency—and ultimately created a custom power plan together.

Impactful energy solutions for leading medicine

Leveraging our team’s expertise, we helped Houston Methodist identify where its energy could scale for demand response programs without creating any downtime for critical hospital operations. Through its commitment to decrease 10 MW of spend, the hospital has netted extensive savings while prioritizing emergency readiness and maintaining grid stability for the local energy network.

We also identified three key assets that were previously deemed non-compliant by RICE NESHAP legislation. And using an innovative “No Out of Pocket Cost” plan for HMH, we helped them meet EPA and TCEQ compliance standards so this health care giant could increase participation in demand response programs.

As their energy partner, we ensure that they are enrolled in 4CP, ERS-30, and the CPE Commercial Load Management Peak Summer Demand Response program to try and capture potential savings. 4CP empowers the organization to scale energy during the summer’s four grid peaks and avoid cost spent on demand charges for the next year. Through our partnership, Houston Methodist was able to successfully enact their 4CP plan during peak events.

Through their energy plan, HMH also received access to the NRG Online Account Management tool. It allows them to create customizable and configurable reports on their energy usage from its dashboard — with near real-time KW demand and KWH interval data. This technology also lets them to share data with facility managers at all 189 of their service sites.

These are all just small pieces of a larger creative solution that leverages Houston Methodist’s need for resiliency, cost-effectiveness, and determined focus on patient care. By working with us, Houston Methodist gained access to a team of experts who were able to create integrated power plans that fit their needs, both for today and the future.