Along with becoming the first LEED Gold hospital, the medical center was the first to operate on 100 percent renewable power. The medical center buys about 184,000 kilowatt-hours of green power each month from its utility — 50 percent wind, 25 percent geothermal, and 25 percent low-impact hydroelectric.
The medical center also participates in the Dispatchable Standby Generation program through Portland General Electric, which allows the utility to help lower peak demand on the grid by buying power produced by the hospital's two 750-kilowatt emergency generators. The generators' output is enough to power about 3,000 homes.
"We partnered with the energy trust and with our local utility, and they provided funding to upsize our generators and to give us some higher-end transfer switches and switchgear," Schorzman says. "The hospital always has priority in our switchgear set-up, where if we saw a loss of utility, and we were putting power out to the grid via our generators, it's almost an instantaneous switchback to where we get the generators."
Along with funding the improvements to the generators, the utility is responsible for all maintenance and related costs for those units.
Revisiting the Performance of First LEED Gold Hospital
Hospital Design Team Focuses on Computer-Generated Models
Hospital Operates on 100 Percent Renewables, Sells Power
HVAC, Lighting, Plumbing Initiatives Fuel LEED Certification
First LEED Gold Hospital Now a High-Performance Building
LEED for Healthcare Addresses Unique Operational Requirements
