CCHP for the Poliambulanza of Brescia

The energy policy of the Italian SEN (Energy National Strategy) 2017 deals with the consumption monitoring and the energy management solution in buildings. Among them, hospitals are some of the most energivorous buildings. That’s why the Poliambulanza of Brescia has chosen to invest in a high efficiency trigeneration plant (CCHP). The general manager, Alessandro Signorini, explains that the goal of Poliambulanza is to become a “smart hospital in a smart city”.

Poliambulanza is seeking to reduce energy consumption and to use more renewable energy. Moreover, Demand Response is employed in order to increase the global efficiency of the system.

The CCHP plant

The trigeneration system of the hospital will be able to provide electricity, heat and cold thermal power. It will feed the 80% of the energy required by the Poliambulanza and it will let energy savings of 14300 MWh per year and emission reduction of 30%. The rated power is 2004 kWe and 1900 kWt. The surplus power is used to produce water at 7-12°C. through a lithium bromide absorber. The plant has been installed by AB, an Italian company of Orzinuovi specialized in cogeneration, and it will work for 8000 h per year, with a global efficiency of 87%. The energy used in the hospital comes from different sources, such as  photovoltaic energy produced by solar panels and natural gas, certified by A2A as renewable.  The total investment of 3,5 millions has a time back period of 2,3 years. Moreover, Fondazione Poliambulanza is seeking to reduce energy consumption also by adopting new strategies in energy purchase and management and investing in high efficiency installations.

Demand Response for the Poliambulanza

The Fondazione Poliambulanza is one of the four pilot sites in Europe (with the campus of Middlesbrough (UK) and Cluj Napoca in Romania and the research centre Nobatek in Anglet, Francia) chosen for the project Demande Response Block of Builiding (DR-BoB) part of Horizon 2020. DR-BOB has the purpose of show the economical advantages of the appliance of demand response techniques in the energy management of civil buildings. The plant of Poliambulanza is controlled by a supervision system which allows the adjustment of the electrical load diagram, for example curtailing some loads during peak usage times.