A collaborative project from start to finish

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has just completed a project that was over two years in the planning and implementation to introduce carbon and energy-saving initiatives and upgrade other facilities and infrastructure at two of its main hospital sites. Keen to address a major priority – its maintenance backlog – it has reduced its carbon footprint, cut its energy bills, and made further reductions in its overall demand for electricity and heat, by entering into a 15-year Energy Performance Contract (EPC) with Cynergin. The company’s turnkey solution – it will also maintain the equipment – involved centralising each site’s heating systems with energy-efficient, dual fuel low temperature hot water (LTHW) boilers and associated distribution systems, installing a combined heat and power (CHP) unit, and fitting ‘considerably more economical’ high-efficiency lighting. Philip Jagger reports for HEJ. 

The Trust needed to simultaneously address its £2 m annual energy bill, £11 m backlog maintenance – including substantial heating-related problems, and its site resilience, to ensure continuity of hospital services. It is also committed to a 30% reduction in carbon emissions by 2015. To address these issues, it entered into the energy procurement framework, the Carbon & Energy Fund, to procure an Energy Performance Contract. 

Cynergin was selected as Preferred Bidder after being shortlisted following the Invitation to Tender Stage. The competitive procurement process allows companies to put forward their proposed solutions following a series of site visits and meetings with the Trust. Each bidder’s solution is judged against the Trust’s evaluation criteria.