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NYC Health + Hospitals Earns More Than $1.4M from Con Edison for Health System Green Projects
Apr 22, 2021
NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that it has earned more than $1.4 million from Con Edison for the system’s green projects, which helped reduce electricity demand during extreme temperature days last summer. Con Edison’s Summer 2020 Demand Response rewards organizations for reducing electricity demand on extreme temperature days. This new funding, which is the largest amount NYC Health + Hospitals has ever received, will be re-invested in additional projects to address “decarbonization and sustainability” by the health system’s Office of Facilities Development. NYC Health + Hospitals has a strong track record of making structural and energy improvements to support the climate change fight, such as installing fuel cells, exterior lighting that runs on wind and solar, and using battery storage to help mitigate energy demands during peak loads like high-temperature summer days. Since 2007, NYC Health + Hospitals has reduced its carbon greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent.
“We are excited about sustainability efforts at NYC Health + Hospitals, and we look forward to working to make our campuses more eco-conscious and greener,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Senior Vice President of the Office of Facilities Development Christine Flaherty. “The work to make our system greener and more energy efficient takes a tremendous amount of creativity because of the aging infrastructure of our buildings. It requires retrofitting old equipment and making substantial structural improvements across our facilities. Our teams of experts and external partners make it a reality to give our staff and patients greener, safer, more sustainable healthcare spaces. We are excited to double down on our efforts in the coming years and there remains additional opportunities on the horizon.”
The Con Edison compensation will support NYC Health + Hospitals’ major energy projects system-wide by funding energy audits that will help identify future opportunities to further tackle and reduce the health system’s carbon footprint. There will be a continued focus on reaching many of the goals related to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and becoming more energy efficient by continuing to deploy on-site co-generation, battery storage, solar photovoltaic, and fuel cells.
Energy conservation goals set by NYC Health + Hospitals, in collaboration with the City and State, include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, decreasing electric grid consumption by 50 percent over the next 10 years, and designing and installing on-site power generation to produce electricity cleaner and more efficiently to sustain conservation.
In the last six months, NYC Health + Hospitals has secured over $100 million in energy infrastructure funding from various funding sources for NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, Harlem, and North Central Bronx. This funding has been earmarked for boiler plant infrastructure upgrades, replacing air handling units, domestic hot water, windows, lighting, and elevators. When completed these projects will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 6.5 percent and are projected to save the health system over $6.5 million in energy bills annually.
NYC Health + Hospitals’ Office of Facilities Development works closely with each of its facilities’ leadership to identify major projects to produce significant energy reduction, cost savings, and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The system also works closely with multiple city partners, such as the New York City Department of Administrative Services (DCAS), the New York Power Authority (NYPA), and Con Edison.