St. Joseph’s Receives State and National Awards for Generating Its Own Electricity

Syracuse, NY (May 18, 2017) – At a ceremony in Albany last night, St. Joseph’s Health received the Jeffrey J. Zogg Build NY Award from the NYS Associated General Contractors for the hospital’s cogeneration plant. St. Joseph’s cogeneration plant also received one of only three national Vista Awards from the American Hospital Association’s American Society for Healthcare Engineering in March of this year.

St. Joseph’s constructed and equipped a cogeneration plant between 2012-2014 to make the hospital a self-sufficient producer of electricity for daily operations and generate a positive return on investment. The “CoGen” combined heat and power plant provides nearly all of the Hospital’s energy requirements, and saves the hospital approximately $1 million each year.

Combined heat and power (CHP) is the simultaneous generation of electricity and usable heat, in the form of steam and hot water. The adoption of CHP can provide energy supply reliability, environmental benefits, and predictable energy costs.

Adjacent to the loading dock building along North State Street, the CHP plant uses a 4.6 megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired turbine and generates 25 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually. This is equivalent to the amount of power consumed by approximately 3,600 homes in a year.

“Our CHP facility generates electricity and heat for our buildings, as well as hot water and chilled water,” explained Edward Grabowski, facilities engineer. “In addition, it allows us to continue our normal operations in the event of a power outage.”

In a statement made at the beginning of this project, Francis J. Murray Jr., president and CEO at NYSERDA, said: “Combined heat and power projects provide an efficient way for large facilities to generate their own power, reducing demand from the electric grid and recapturing waste heat for other uses. The State’s investment in projects like St. Joseph’s is just one way New York State, under Governor Cuomo, is helping to keep energy costs down allowing businesses to remain competitive while improving their bottom line.”

St. Joseph’s is one of only a few organizations in the area with its own cogeneration plant.

About St. Joseph’s Health

St. Joseph’s Health is a non-profit regional health care system based in Syracuse, N.Y., providing services to patients throughout Central New York and northern Pennsylvania. From primary to specialty to home care, to our Magnet-recognized hospital, and in collaboration with our community partners, St. Joseph's Health is advancing the health of the communities we serve through an expanding range of healthcare services to ensure our patients achieve optimum long-term health. Ranked by Consumer Reports among the top 15 heart surgery centers in the country, U.S. News “Best Regional Hospital” and a 15-time winner of the National Research Corporation Consumer Choice award, St. Joseph’s is widely recognized for quality, value and delivering the highest patient satisfaction. St. Joseph’s Health is affiliated with Franciscan Companies and St. Joseph’s Physicians and is a part of Trinity Health.