Bluewater Health is working on a project that's expected to save the hospital over $500,000 in utility costs each year.
The hospital has issued a Request for Proposal [RFP] for a project that involves a combined heat and power plant to produce electricity from a natural gas-fired engine.
Director of Biomedical Engineering and Facilities Alex Sullo says heat recovered from the plant's internal combustion engine is captured and reused within the boiler plant -- avoiding the additional use of existing boilers and fuel.
"It is an 800 KWH gas fired engine that's being installed on the Bluewater Health property," said Sullo. "That engine will probably be producing over 60 per cent of our power, thus reducing our power demands on the grid and obviously producing power at a much more efficient and cost effective way."
Sullo said the new energy source creates clean and efficient power and avoids energy loss that occurs during delivery from Ontario's electrical grid.
"We call it a 'plant' because essentially it has multiple systems in it, but most HP engines come containerized. It would be like a large storage container, somewhere embedded or placed on the property in a nice way."
A $1.2 million incentive has been approved by Ontario's Independent Electrical System Operator for the project which is posted on the government contract portal Biddingo.com.
Applications for engineering services will be accepted until July 24, with a second RFP expected this fall for build and installation.
The location of the combined heat and power plant has not been decided and will be determined during the engineering phase of the project.
Bluewater Health is hoping to have the project, estimated to cost between $3 million and $5 million dollars, complete by December 1, 2020.