Murphy Co. Chills Gateway Hospital’s Energy Costs

Murphy Co. helped officials of Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City celebrate savings from its new chiller system by presenting the hospital with a ceremonial check for $229,229.34.

The check represents the Act on Energy incentives that Ameren Illinois is giving Gateway Regional Medical Center for replacing its three decades old chiller system with a new, high efficiency chiller system that will operate using 60 percent less electricity.

The Murphy Company was the energy consultant and mechanical contractor on the $1.4 million project.

Samuel Welge, energy solutions manager at Murphy, said the new chiller system will cut the medical center's electricity use by over three million kilowatt hours a year for an annual savings at current electric rates of about $180,000.

With the nearly $230,000 subsidy from Ameren, the project will pay for itself in only 6.4 years, said the medical center's chief executive officer, Damon Brown. Without the subsidy, the payback period would have been 7.7 years.

"A nearly one-and-a-half year reduction in the payback was significant," said Ron Leazer, chief financial officer of Gateway Regional Medical Center.

Jeff Blandford, project manager for Murphy, said three parts of the project made significant contributions to reducing energy use. First, Murphy replaced the two aged chillers in the 780 ton chiller systems with two new Trane CenTraVac variable flow chillers.

"That's one of the most efficient chillers you can buy," said David Gajewski, energy engineer at Murphy. "It is 60 percent more efficient than the old chiller at its primary operating point," he said. In addition, "the older chillers got less efficient at low loads, but these get more efficient," he said.

Second, Murphy redesigned the chiller loop, replacing the two loop (primary and secondary) system with a single, variable flow loop. "That reduces the amount of water flowing through the system and the energy used," Blandford said.

Third, Murphy replaced the four, old, constant frequency pumps on old two-loop system with two, variable frequency pumps for additional energy savings.

"The new system is more efficient mechanically and electrically," Blandford said.

Stan Ogden, Ameren Illinois vice president of customer service and public relations, said Act on Energy incentives are available for business and residential customers, including nonprofits. Launched in 2008, the program subsidized over 1500 energy efficiency projects in its first two years. This fiscal year, $10.7 million were allocated to the incentive program.

"Owners are not generally aware of the incentives. Part of our job is to let them know what is available," Welge said.

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