(BlackburnNews.com file photo)(BlackburnNews.com file photo)
Midwestern

Powering Stratford General Hospital

The CEO for the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance says a new co-generation system is now providing the power for the Stratford hospital.

Andrew Williams says they now have a natural gas-fired generator providing the electricity needed to run the hospital and they expect to see a significant reduction in energy consumption from the grid with a reduction in costs of about $350,000 a year.

Williams says the savings will go back to cover the cost of the co-generation plant and when that's paid for the money will go back into patient care.

“We've put in a natural gas-fired generator to generate the electricity that we need here," says Williams. "So we'll see a significant reduction in our energy consumption, our Hydro costs will go down and we'll see a minimum of $350,000 in annual savings as a result.”

Williams adds they looked at the potential for the same program in the hospitals in Clinton, Seaforth and St. Marys but concluded because of the amount of power consumed at those sites it wasn't viable.

“We've done an analysis and the payback, because of the amount of Hydro consumed, does not warrant the initiative, so I would expect we'll continue to look at other energy-efficiency programs at all of our sites, which we always do, but this particular initiative really only worked at our Stratford site," says Williams.

Williams says they'll continue to look for energy efficiencies at all of their sites but the co-generation plant was only viable at the Stratford site.

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