OREANDA-NEWS. GE’s Distributed Power business (NYSE: GE) today announced that Barts Health NHS Trust recently celebrated NHS Sustainability Day with the official start up of its new high-efficiency trigeneration power plant at Barts Health NHS Trust, which is Europe’s oldest hospital. The new natural gas energy center was built to increase the hospital’s energy security and efficiency while reducing its fuel costs and curbing its environmental impacts.

Clarke Energy, GE’s authorized distributor of Jenbacher gas engines in the U.K., supplied one of GE’s Ecomagination qualified 1.4-megawatt (MW) Jenbacher gas engines to supply reliable electricity and heat. For the combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) energy center, Clarke Energy also supplied a 250-kilowatt absorption chiller, which delivers needed cooling water for the hospital and balance of plant equipment.

Barts Health NHS Trust, through Skanska—one of the world’s leading project development and construction groups—selected Clarke Energy to install the new energy system.

“Our new trigeneration plant will play a vital role in helping us increase the energy efficiency, resilience and availability of Barts Health NHS Trust while also promoting greater financial savings,” said Fiona Daly, associate director of sustainability and patient transport for Barts Health NHS Trust. “Climate change poses a significant threat to health systems across the world, and its effects will touch the lives of everyone in the U.K. However, with this threat comes a great opportunity to bring about practical change and empowerment, both in our health systems and in the communities in which we serve. This project illustrates the leadership role that hospitals can play in supporting the U.K.’s efforts to address climate change through energy efficiency.”

In addition to replacing Barts Health NHS Trust’s aging energy and heat supply system to increase the site’s energy efficiency, the new energy center is strengthening the hospital’s on-site power generation resilience in the event of a natural disaster or interruption of power.

Haydn Rees, managing director of Clarke Energy, said: “We are extremely gratified to have been selected by Skanska to supply GE’s proven Jenbacher cogeneration technology and our project services to help Barts Health NHS Trust reach this significant cost- and carbon-saving goal. Throughout the U.K. and in other countries, we are seeing more industrial customers installing advanced cogeneration technologies to comply with national and EU energy efficiency and environmental policies.”

“We are proud to collaborate with Clarke Energy on the Barts Health NHS Trust’s successful trigeneration plant project, which is showcasing how our highly efficient and reliable Jenbacher gas engine technology and Clarke Energy’s excellent services are ideally suited to help U.K. industrial operators address their on-site energy and environmental challenges,” said Leon van Vuuren, regional sales leader for Europe, North Africa, Turkey and India for GE’s Distributed Power business. “Barts Health NHS Trust is writing a new chapter in the centuries-long history of the hospital, highlighting the hospital’s role in supporting London’s energy efficiency goals.”

Now in its fifth year, NHS Sustainability Day is a nationally recognized day for action on climate change, engaging everyone across the NHS and social care systems. The day crosses boundaries to engage local authorities, commissioners, local charities and brings together ministerial backing to support local leaders to create a groundswell of action, debate and best practice sharing and recognition through their annual awards. The day was chosen to mark the official start of the CCHP unit.

The energy center was built as part of the “Powering Health” collaboration to deliver lower-impact, fully funded CCHP solutions to NHS Trusts, including those that are part of a private finance initiative (PFI) structure. Funded by Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL), the project is the first of its kind under a strategic collaboration between Skanska, SDCL, Clarke Energy, GE and the NHS Confederation.