University of Maryland Medical Center: Energy performance

Better Buildings Challenge Partners strive to decrease portfolio-wide source energy use intensity (EUI) and to increase the percent improvement compared to a set baseline. The University of Maryland Medical Center's (UMMC) portfolio consists of an academic medical center which is 2.1 million square feet and a 70,000 sqft medical office building. UMMC has improved energy performance by 14% from a 2012 baseline, making great progress towards a goal of 20% by 2022.

The UMMC campus uses district steam that is generated at Baltimore's waste-to-energy plant for sterilization, air-side heating, water-side heating and humidification.  There are no boilers on campus. Over the course of these six years, UMMC has implemented the following energy efficiency upgrades.  Steam system improvements include the addition of removable steam insulation blankets on 5 steam stations.  HVAC improvements include the addition of  a heat recovery chiller, upgrades to three standard chillers, upgrades to five air handlers, the addition of many variable frequency drives and improvements to the building automation system monitoring program.  Lighting improvements include the addition of lighting controls and upgrades to LED in approximately 50% of the building. Equipment improvements include upgrades to fifteen elevators and upgrades to four medical air pumps & eight vacuum pumps from water-cooled to air-cooled.  The building envelope improvements include the replacement of 5 roofs with energy efficient coatings, upgrades to wall insulation and window replacements.  UMMC also developed a “Help Reduce Energy” email campaign. The EUI has decreased even though the campus was expanded with the addition a 170,000 sqft LEED Gold patient tower