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EPA Recognizes Eastern Maine Medical Center with Energy Star Award

Release Date: 11/15/2010
Contact Information: Contact: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017

(Boston, Mass. – Nov. 15, 2010) – EPA recently presented a 2010 Energy Star Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Award to Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) in Bangor, Maine.

In 1998, a devastating ice storm in the region damaged local infrastructure and caused many homes and businesses to be without power for several weeks. After EMMC lost dependable power for 16 hours during this period, the hospital’s management realized the necessity of critical power reliability. The solution was realized in 2006, when the hospital began operation of a natural gas-fired CHP system powered by a turbine manufactured by Solar Turbines, Inc. Generating up to 4.4 megawatt of electricity and 25,000 pounds per hour of steam for building climate control and hot water, the combined heat and power system provides over 90 percent of the hospital’s electricity and steam.

With an operating efficiency of approximately 70 percent, the CHP system requires over 25 percent less fuel than would otherwise be required to provide electricity from the electric grid and to produce steam on site. As a result, the CHP system effectively reduces CO₂ emissions by more than 10,000 tons per year, the equivalent of the annual emissions from more than 1,800 passenger vehicles.

The Energy Star CHP Award recognizes highly efficient CHP systems that reduce emissions and use at least five percent less fuel than comparable, state-of-the-art, separate heat and power generation.

More information: EPA’s CHP Partnership and the Energy Star CHP Awards (http://epa.gov/chp/public-recognition/awards.html)

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