The energy crisis continues to put businesses and public sector organisations under huge economic pressure. Healthcare is one of the most energy-intensive sectors, with NHS Trusts and healthcare facilities already consuming vast amounts of energy, and the World Health Organization forecasting that energy costs will rise over the next five years. Late last year, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust reported that it was expecting a 130% rise in its energy bill for 2022-23, compared with 2021-22, while Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust said it was preparing for a 214% increase in electricity and gas costs for the same period.
Alongside these soaring costs, the UK is also living in the shadow of blackouts and outages due to energy scarcity and extreme weather. In 2019 lightning strikes caused outages at Ipswich Hospital, where battery failure caused the back-up generator to fail. The energy risks facing the NHS are myriad. Running alongside is the overarching imperative to ensure that the service reaches its Net Zero goals; for direct emissions, it aims to reach Net Zero by 2040, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2028 to 2032. Combined, this means that NHS Estates & Facilities managers must embrace more efficient, resilient, and sustainable energy management approaches without compromising patient care.
Always-on resiliency
With the need for an always-on, resilient energy supply, alongside increasing amounts of power-hungry medical equipment, NHS hospital Trusts have complex and specific utility requirements. Answering the needs of a digitalised healthcare service requires digitalised power management, energy efficiency, maintenance, HVAC, and building management approaches. For example, today’s intelligent Building Management Systems (BMS) enable healthcare Estates managers to analyse asset and power health in real time, enabling them to diagnose and prevent problems before they occur using predictive maintenance capabilities. As the brain of the building, a BMS can monitor and control almost every aspect of its energy performance.
For example, a hospital’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system can account for 30% or more of the total energy consumed. As energy costs skyrocket, improving the efficiency of HVAC, lighting, and other systems, can significantly reduce energy consumption and costs. This can include automation of energy-draining factors such as lighting, where occupancy sensors turn off lighting for unoccupied rooms. Installing variable speed drives on chillers and fans reduces energy consumption by enabling ventilation to respond to the requirements of each space based on occupancy and air quality (CO2) sensor data, for example.
Optimising BMS and HVAC systems can help immediately reduce energy consumption. A building that currently consumes 300 kWh/m2 /year can expect to reduce consumption to as little as 180 kWh/m2 /year using automation and control, while reducing associated emissions to help the journey to Net Zero.
New-builds and retrofits
Hospitals already have many of these components in place. This makes it relatively simple and cost-effective to retrofit systems that combine them all underneath a single umbrella, and enable them to analyse asset and power health across their estate. Once they have this centralised visibility of the whole network, they gain a variety of benefits. For example, software analytics takes data from BMS and power distribution systems to notify Estates and Facilities managers of common issues such as leaky valves, failing circuit breakers or – as with the Ipswich hospital example above – flat batteries. This enables maintenance teams to address issues before they become a problem. Digitisation can also significantly lower continuing energy expenditures, and enable hospitals to find previously undetectable inefficiencies, like IT hotspots or depleted batteries, by monitoring systems all the way down to device level, and processing the resulting data through cloud analytics.
As the NHS identified in its Net Zero strategy, ‘engineering solutions to upgrade our buildings represents a total of 473 ktCO2e in potential emissions savings’. The strategy also identifies that ‘a wide range of interventions focused on airconditioning and cooling, building fabric, space heating, ventilation, and hot water could … [save] some £250 m per year’.
Adoption on both new-builds and retrofits
That the adoption of BMS solutions in healthcare settings has increased as tangible ROI has been demonstrated. While there is the option to incorporate the latest Building Management Systems into greenfield sites, such systems can also be easily deployed as a retrofit in hospitals, clinics, and other medical and administrative buildings. These digital services can be installed quickly, and will typically generate energy savings of 10 to 20% for a commercial building of 10,000 m2 with a consumption of 180 kWh per m2 /year. Indeed, identifying and upgrading inefficient or outdated building equipment and systems through retrofit projects across the healthcare estate is core to the NHS’s Net Zero strategy.
The University of Nottingham is a case in point. Schneider Electric worked with the University’s Facilities Management team to upgrade its voltage network and integrate a new BMS and digital services architecture. This ensured that the new system was compatible with both new and existing buildings. The combined system uses automation and control to optimise heating and cooling throughout the campus. It has reduced energy consumption and expenditure, while driving cost savings, thanks to a better understanding of energy usage. This has resulted in a 5% reduction in energy consumption, and a 3% reduction in energy costs. In addition, the system has enabled the University to improve its control of renewable technology by 75%, reducing emissions in line with its decarbonisation plans.
An optimised digital ecosystem
Moving forward, Building Management Systems are being integrated with greater analytics capabilities and remote accessibility. Leveraging IoT technology, these systems are becoming more sophisticated, and enable applications that go well beyond energy efficiency.
Most hospitals will already have a BMS solution in place, but few are maximising technology to create an optimised ecosystem. Legacy solutions, including some building management systems, building energy management systems (BEMS), and smart lighting or HVAC systems, can save hospitals and clinics upwards of 20% on their energy costs annually. However, newer, IoTbased systems incorporating AI extend those benefits to deliver hyper-efficient, resilient, sustainable estates that deliver a superior level of patient care
IoT, or Internet of Things, refers to interconnected networks of Internetaccessible devices to collect, store, and transmit data to other connected devices. IoT-enabled platforms deepen the value of intelligent building technologies by delivering unprecedented visibility into healthcare facility performance. This can include using BMS data and systems within a ’digital twin’ of a building’s assets and systems, enabling continuous, automated diagnostics to monitor and detect any performance anomalies. Going further, IoT-based, open, interoperable platforms drive energy efficiency and smart, connected healthcare systems, but they also drive improved outcomes across patient experience, system resiliency, and sustainability targets.
Powering benefits way beyond cost
The average hospital uses 2.5 times as much energy as other commercial buildings of similar size. There are ample opportunities for IoT-enabled platforms to help reduce energy-related costs in healthcare settings, and in some cases vendors will guarantee a minimum level of energy savings, reducing the investment risk for the decision-maker. However, the benefits go far beyond cost-saving. For example, IoT-based solutions equip Estates & Facilities teams with an improved view of the condition of building products, systems, and high-risk assets. This insight can reduce maintenance time by proactively addressing a facility’s failures, supporting better decision making, and reducing risk. This proactive approach ensures resilient power availability – the most foundational aspect of facility operations. In fact, our research shows that 87% of healthcare facility executives view improving resiliency as a significant factor in IoT investment decisions.
Medical equipment requires a substantial, reliable source of power. Maintaining high-quality, clean power is vital to ensuring that sensitive healthcare equipment always performs properly; a reactive approach to asset performance management exposes hospitals to critical risks. In contrast, IoT-based asset management and predictive maintenance systems support real-time, data-driven repair and replacement decisions through predictive analytics. Rather than facing downtime due to unexpected repairs, maintenance crews are alerted to potential problems before critical shutdowns.
Monitoring the electrical network
At the same time, power management systems optimise power system performance and reliability by monitoring the electrical network and identifying issues with availability and quality. Without IoT, this information may be inaccessible and siloed. Real-time monitoring, alarming, and power quality information, provide root cause analysis to help avoid critical conditions that can cause equipment failures and downtime. Meanwhile, technologies such as microgrids, power automation, power events analysis, and condition-based maintenance, also play a significant part in guarding against outages.
Underpinning efficiency with sustainability
We should also not forget the overarching need for the NHS to reach its ambitious decarbonisation targets. As the NHS identified in its Net Zero strategy, ‘Intelligent, real-time energy monitoring and control, including the use of artificial intelligence, would contribute up to 2.3% of the total required reduction in carbon emissions’.
Investment in IoT platforms enabling integration of building energy management systems (BEMS) and BMS can support the NHS’s sustainability mandates. Crucially, these systems provide a platform for consolidated measurement and monitoring, enabling estates leaders to quickly and accurately report on crucial facets of their Net Zero progress.
While the energy crisis has shone the spotlight on cost implications, healthcare EFM teams, while familiar with IoTbased solutions, need to have a clear understanding of just how far beyond cost-saving the benefits of these systems can go. There is a growing ecosystem of participants that combine IT innovation, facilities, and energy expertise, as well as business strategy, in support of healthcare Estates and Facilities managers and owners. These trusted advisors can help navigate the digital transformation with guidance on technology selection, implementation and management, and long-term strategies, that encompass hyper-efficiency, resiliency, and sustainability – the pillars of an NHS estate fit for the future.
David Pownall
David Pownall joined Schneider Electric UK & Ireland as VicePresident of Services in 2019. Having previously headed up EMEA customer support and maintenance delivery at Rockwell Automation, David brings a wealth of experience in delivering customer value and improving business performance in industrial settings. Prior to this, he also held positions in the Services departments of ABB Robotics UK and MOTOMAN Robotics.
With over 20 years of Services experience, he believes that cutting-edge technology on its own is not enough to solve the industry’s biggest challenges. It is a combination of data-driven insights, innovative applications, digital services, and consultative partnerships, that will enable the next level of resilience, agility and sustainability in industry, infrastructure, and buildings. Energy efficiency, sustainability, and digital service, must all become an integral part of project design.