Southwest Energy Efficiency Project

VA Hospital, Albuquerque

The VA Hospital campus is comprised of 45 buildings with 919,300 square feet of total floor space. Designed as a 500 bed facility, it currently has just 155 beds active. Annual utility costs are approximately $1.8 million, or $2.00 per square foot.

The energy plant for the VA campus consists primarily of three 500 hp boilers, two 16-year old 500 ton chillers, and a 14-year old 600 ton chiller. The HVAC systems are monitored and controlled by three separate software packages on three separate computers. Water usage at the facility is enormous, averaging about 180,000 gallons a day indoors and an additional 200,000 gallons per day of summer usage for landscape irrigation. Water is pumped from an 1100-ft. deep well using an 11-stage, 750 gpm pump. Lastly, the hospital maintains 3.3 megawatts of on-site generation for emergencies. The hospital is considering interconnecting the generators to the utility grid and operating them for up to 727 hours per year for utility peak shaving.

PNM's "Energy Partners" division had prepared a detailed feasibility study recommending $3.9 million in energy conservation projects with projected savings of about $540,000 annually. The first of these projects was a $1 million lighting retrofit to T-8 units with electronic ballasts that the VA has completed on its own.

Rebuild New Mexico recommended a number of energy efficiency measures that the hospital could pursue, including: studying the prospects of on-site cogeneration; lowering boiler steam pressure; consolidating some of the hospital's operations into fewer buildings; reducing water consumption through xeriscaping and eliminating "once through cooling" of compressors and vacuum pumps, and retrofitting the T-12/magnetic lighting in the elevators.

Ultimately, the hospital did proceed with a 10-year performance contract with PNM. Phase I of the contract is a $1.7 million upgrade to 24 air handlers, which includes installing variable-frequency drives, 95% efficient filters, and a direct digital control system. Phase II will see 11 additional air handler upgrades. Total savings for the projected are expected to include $220,000 annually in verified energy savings and an additional $70,000 per year in stipulated savings.

© 2002-2008 Southwest Energy Efficiency Project
2260 Baseline Rd. Suite 212, Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 447-0078 fax: (303) 786-8054 info@swenergy.org

Last Updated: 01/28/2008