Medical Office Building - Solar + Battery + Efficiency
Overview
How a Medical Office Building Backed up Critical Circuits While Cutting Energy Cost
Many physicians own the building housing their practices. This has significant benefits, but also comes with the responsibility of optimizing and managing a significant real estate asset. Part of this includes finding ways to lower energy cost, plan asset replacements, and meet the operational demands of the facility. This was the challenge facing a North Texas based dermatology practice when they engaged Holistic Utility Solutions for a comprehensive plan and project.
Problem
The increase in Texas power outages over the past 5 years has brought increased concern about operational impact to a variety of businesses. A North Texas (DFW) based medical practice had a special challenge as the coolers holding tissue samples had to stay cold or they would lose a lot of revenue and impact patients.
Any time power was lost the lights and computers would also go down, causing the practice to have to close until power was restored. A portable gas powered generator had been used, but a more permanent solution was needed.
In addition to the challenges with power losses, the owners were looking for ways to lower energy cost and improve overall profitability.
Lastly, the existing lighting system was different color temperatures and didn’t provide even, clean lighting throughout the practice.
Solution
The doctors/facility owners engaged Holistic Utility Solutions to evaluate the best approach to meeting their goals of lower power cost and improved resiliency.
We began by bidding their electricity contract to find the best supplier. While doing this, we considered the fact that upcoming initiatives would lower consumption and ensured the contract allowed for a reduction in contracted kWh and also provide compensation for solar power exported back to the grid.
We then designed a solar + battery system. The critical loads (computers, refrigerators, etc.) were metered to calculate how much power they drew and battery size was calculated accordingly. The solar system was designed to maximize savings without overproducing power that would be sent back to the grid, ensuring the best payback.
Final system size was 70KW-dc with 40kWh of battery energy storage.
Since the solar and battery systems were interconnected, the solar will provide power during the event of a power outage and allow the batteries to recharge and run the critical circuits indefinitely.
An Oncor incentive for solar work nearly $38k was pursued. However, as part of the Oncor incentive an energy efficiency project also needed to be completed.
To meet this requirement and minimize power consumption from the batteries, we changed all the lights in the clinic to LED panels. This improved lighting throughout the space, received an additional Oncor incentive, extended battery runtime, and allowed the overall Oncor incentive to be achieved.
Lastly, new thermostats were provided for all HVAC units. This allowed consistent scheduling and setpoints on the 26 HVAC units serving the building, lower energy cost.
Result
The project was delivered turnkey by Holistic Utility Solution at a competitive price. All incentives were passed along directly to the client, giving them a payback of 5-7 years on the overall project.
As a Phase II of the project, Holistic has since assisted the customer with identifying and selecting 14 HVAC units that need replacement due to age. This will provide the last piece of ensuring the overall system is efficient and reliable.