Hospital energy efficiency

Experts are in consensus that electrical audits are critical to inform and guide power factor installations, ensuring optimal energy efficiency in hospitals while reducing operational costs.

We share valuable insights on these key business improvement processes and how these can be leveraged to the maximum.

Power factor is a huge cost factor

Power factor is often overlooked, yet it is a major contributor to costs in most industrial operations, including hospitals. This is a synopsis of how it works:

Your electricity can be divided into three main components, namely active, reactive and apparent power.
The active or working power (kW) is the power drawn by your installations to produce light, heat, motion, etc.
Devices which need a magnetic field in order to operate, such as motors, transformers, lighting ballasts etc., also consume reactive power (kVAr)
Active and reactive power together results in apparent power (kVAr)
Power factor is the ratio of Active Power over Reactive Power and is a measure of how effectively the power drawn from the grid is being used. The higher the power factor (as close as possible to 1,00), the more effective the power usage of an installation, which will in turn lead to substantially reduced energy consumption and decreased costs.

Energy audits provide useful strategic data

Electrical audits should not only provide an objective and professional overview of the actual electricity consumption, but it should also offer recommendations for correcting and optimising it – where necessary.

Energy specialists Alpha Power Solutions use the latest, most sophisticated test equipment to measure the following electrical parameters accurately:

Power factor
Line & phase voltage
Neutral & phase current
Apparent, reactive & active power
Current & voltage harmonics, up to the 50th harmonic
All power quality events that fall outside of the EU standards & norms for power quality
Seasoned electrical engineers are deployed to conduct these tests. The results are then analysed and interpreted to produce a detailed report on the following:

An “as is” representation of energy consumption and demand
A calculation of the optimal reactive power compensation for the plant, while under peak load conditions
A cost/benefit analysis of the proposed power factor correction solution
Most importantly, the energy audits that the engineers at Alpha Power Solutions conduct, allow them to guarantee the return on investment (ROI) of the power factor correction interventions they recommend.

This enables their customers to make informed decisions for this type of energy efficiency improvements that are based on accurate data and that can be budgeted for.

Benefits of an improved power factor

Advantages of an improved power factor include the following:

Optimal conversion of electricity from the utilities into useful power
A significant reduction in the maximum demand
A reduction in electrical energy costs
Freeing up of capacity on supply transformers
Reduced transmission losses
Enhanced energy efficiency
Free power factor correction assessments

Alpha Power Solutions offers free preliminary power factor correction assessments to evaluate power factor correction opportunities for interested parties. These assessments are a useful tool to determine the initial cost/benefits estimates of a power factor correction intervention, needed for budget purposes.

If the initial assessment reveals a meaningful opportunity to reduce energy costs through a power factor correction intervention, a full audit is then conducted on site.

This audit is also offered free of charge to customers who subsequently buy the recommended solution from Alpha Power Solutions.

Once again, all assessments are concluded with a summary of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to accomplish the ideal power factor for your hospital and operations, including a projection of the period it will take to yield ROI. Feel free to contact Alpha Power Solutions for more information.

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