Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway in New Jersey marked the completion of $3.4 million in energy efficiency improvements that will save the acute care hospital more than $300,000 annually in energy costs.
The work was completed through the PSE&G Hospital Efficiency Program, a $174 million effort by the utility that will help more than 40 hospitals to better manage their energy consumption.
The energy efficiency improvements at RWJ Rahway include a major upgrade to the hospital's air conditioning chiller plant, the installation of energy efficient lighting fixtures, the replacement of old, inefficient motors with new energy efficient models and the retrofitting of existing heating boilers with new energy efficient burners.
The energy efficiency work at RWJ Rahway will save more than two million kWh of electricity and 19,000 therms of natural gas annually.
The PSE&G Hospital Efficiency Program targets hospitals and healthcare facilities located in its electric and/or gas service territory. Through the program, PSE&G provides an audit at no cost to the hospital, then proposes various energy conservation measures that will make substantial improvements in the hospital's efficient use of energy. The program reduces the financial burden on a hospital by providing up-front funding for the total cost of a project. The hospital then pays back a portion of the total project cost over 5 years. Work is complete at 33 hospitals to date, and a recent $45 million extension to the program will allow PSE&G to address the 12 hospitals currently on the waiting list.