ASHRAE’s Illinois Chapter has recognized an existing-building commissioning project at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital Janesville with its 2021 Excellence in Engineering Award.
The Wisconsin hospital, which opened in 2012, is a 174,884-square-foot acute care facility with 50 staffed beds. GBA was retained by SSM to implement a retro-commissioning program: identifying energy savings opportunities, providing scopes of work or necessary design drawings, receiving and reviewing contractor bids, and working with contractors to implement the work. After the project, trend data was reviewed using GBA’s Trend Sumo® in-house monitoring software, and a verification report was provided to confirm that the measures were completed and met the identified targets.
SSM’s objective for the program, from measure identification through verification, was to have a four-year simple payback and save 10% of total energy costs compared with the baseline year (2019). Applicable incentives were secured from Focus on Energy, which administers energy incentive programs for several Wisconsin utilities.
A total of 536,000 kWh/year was saved through implementation of eight measures, as well as 31,000 therms of natural gas. Payback, including incentives, was just 2.2 years. The most significant payback came from AHU economizer optimization, condenser water supply temperature reset, and implementation of kitchen and lobby area night setbacks. The project exceeded its goal of 10% total energy cost reduction vs the baseline.
The project will go on to compete in the ASHRAE Region VI awards program in 2022.
GBA congratulates SSM Health, St. Mary’s Janesville, and its team members for these innovative retro-commissioning efforts, combining energy efficiency and long-term sustainability.
