View Photo
REAL Solutions
Help Businesses Thrive

"Hospitals are facing a crisis. With reductions in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, facilities must do all they can to lower costs. Alabama Power is helping us achieve significant energy savings."

Scott Crenshaw
director, facilities management
University of South Alabama Children's & Women's Hospital

In this video, learn how USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital’s heat recovery project is expected to result in $1.2 million in energy savings the first four years of operation alone.

Challenge:
The University of South Alabama Children's & Women's Hospital needed to replace its outdated heating and cooling systems in order to achieve increased energy efficiency and cost savings.
Solution:
Based on cost savings achieved through a similar project at its sister hospital, the USA Medical Center, the USA Children's & Women's Hospital engaged with Alabama Power for the design and implementation of a state-of-the-art heat recovery system. Alabama Power financed the upfront costs of the project and delivered immediate monthly energy savings to the hospital.
$1.2 Million
Projected Energy Savings Over 4 Years

When Facilities Director Scott Crenshaw was looking to improve energy efficiencies and reduce costs at the USA Children's & Women's Hospital, he called his counterpart at USA Medical Center, Lawrence Gardner. Gardner explained how Alabama Power designed and implemented an innovative heat recovery system for USA Medical Center, a solution that might make sense for Crenshaw.

Alabama Power ultimately developed a similar system for the USA Children's & Women's Hospital. The new heat recovery system extracts heat from the chilled water return of the hospital's chillers. The recovered heat is used to create hot water that is utilized in heating the facility, thus reducing the hospital's reliance on gas-fired boilers. Extracting heat from the chilled water also increases chiller efficiency, resulting in even more energy savings.

Alabama Power assumed the upfront cost to build the system, and is reimbursed by the hospital from the energy savings. Once those costs are recovered, the hospital will retain 100 percent of the savings. All told, the new heat recovery system is expected to deliver some $1.2 million in energy savings in the first four years alone.

REAL Solutions