UC Irvine Breaks Ground on First All-Electric Medical Center in US

An all-electric medical center — believed to be the first of its kind in the United States — is expected to be fully operational in Irvine by 2025.

When plans were drawn up in 2019 for an acute medical center at UC Irvine, team members knew they wanted a facility that could run entirely on electricity, according to Joe Brothman, director of facilities and general services. for UCI Health.

The 144-bed hospital, which innovated in November 2021, will be part of a $1.3 billion medical complex for the university. UC Irvine says it’s likely the first all-electric medical center in the US

Brothman said hospitals, and health care in general, are big contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our operations are very energy intensive,” he said. “Operating rooms and medical facilities themselves, due to their regulatory requirements, typically operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They consume a lot of energy and resources.

“We are an industry in the business of healing people,” he added. “If our operations are contributing to negative health externalities, especially…in underserved populations that have historically had negative health effects from energy, we are not fulfilling our mission. »

In addition to the 144-bed hospital and emergency department, the UCI Irvine-Newport Medical Center is expected to include an advanced care outpatient center, child health center and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building. The advanced care center should be the first of the buildings to open, starting next spring.

It will be the second major medical campus in the UC Irvine system; the first is in Orange.

” New [center] will be a full-service academic medical complex, offering a wide range of the most advanced health services in coastal and southern Orange County, including access to the hundreds of clinical trials underway at UCI Health,” said Chad Lefteris, chief executive of UCI Health. time of inauguration.

On Friday, members of the media had the opportunity to view the interior of the 350,000 square foot center.

The hospital and ambulatory care center will be powered by a Essential utilities plant that does not depend on burning carbon or natural gas.

Brothman noted that the hospital would have backup diesel generators in the event of a power outage, but the goal is for day-to-day operations to be fully powered.

“Because our healthcare system is able to buy electricity on the open market, we buy 100% sustainably generated electricity,” Brothman said. “Operations at our Irvine campus will be some of the greenest energy, portfolio-wise, that we know of, especially for an academic medical center of this size and complexity.”

He said central utilities would incorporate a “handful” of technologies that would heat and cool the building by producing cold and hot water, as well as steam for humidification and cleaning. Instead of the standard single central boiler, Brothman said, the hospital will have small steam boilers at each point of use.

Construction crews are working Friday on the UCI Irvine-Newport Medical Center.

(Scott Smeltzer/Times Community News)

“It will not be a single piped steam line around our campus, which means that during an earthquake or construction, there is no risk of a line breaking of steam and render our heating, cooling or cleaning unable to perform this critical function. , ” he said.

Another benefit is that the hospital will not be affected by fluctuating natural gas prices.

“It’s a way for us to hedge our bets. … We are not beholden to these energy prices that are totally out of our control,” Brothman said. “We can choose to use electricity and buy electricity on the open market. »

While full electrification of other UCI Health facilities is a long way off, Brothman said, a team at the organization is looking for opportunities to make the change in existing buildings, including those on the Orange campus.

The first building on campus could open next spring.

(Scott Smeltzer/Times Community News)