Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Chiller Plant Optimization
OptimumLOOP® delivers operational efficiencies and beats expected cost savings
Beating Projections on a Large, Efficient Campus
Since 2009, the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has been implementing a multiphase energy efficiency program. Six years into the program, Kevin Kanoff, the center’s campus energy engineer, knew the chiller plants were efficient — but believed they could be improved.
Johnson Controls, the center’s lead vendor, brought in Optimum Energy to perform an engineering site assessment (ESA), which proved him correct: optimizing the chiller plants across the campus would deliver significant energy savings. After Optimum Energy completed the installation of its OptiCx® platform and OptimumLOOP® in June 2016, the center’s 12 chillers were running at peak efficiency, saving electricity costs, using less water, and reducing carbon emissions.
Annual energy savings were found to be almost 4.16 GWh/year — roughly 1 GWh more than the original projection of 3.4 GWh — and campus energy intensity dropped 4 percent, bringing the campuswide reduction to 24 percent over 2009 levels.
Three Plants. One Integrated System.
Central Plant
Satellite Plants
Optimizing a Large, Already Efficient Plant
The previous phases of the energy efficiency initiative had already reduced campus energy intensity by 20 percent. Kanoff had to find a way to squeeze out additional efficiencies from a system that was already considered highly optimized.
Scale & Complexity
Three chiller plants spanning 2.6 million sq ft, serving 1.2 million patients and 10,000 employees — with a central plant, a 1.4 million gallon chilled-water storage tank, and two satellite plants all requiring coordinated optimization.
Already 20% More Efficient
Prior energy efficiency phases had already delivered a 20% reduction in campus energy intensity. Finding meaningful additional savings required a holistic, real-time system-wide approach that went beyond what manual operations could achieve.
Critical Patient Environment
Any changes to chiller operations had to be completely seamless. Critical patient care areas could not be compromised during implementation — reliability was non-negotiable across all three plants simultaneously.
Manual Operations Without Full Visibility
Facility staff monitored and controlled chillers manually without a complete picture of the integrated system. Decisions were made per-shift, creating inconsistencies and leaving efficiency gains on the table around the clock.
True Optimization®: Holistic Relational Control
Optimum Energy’s OptimumLOOP® relational control optimizes the plant holistically. It automatically stages all the chillers and the chilled-water storage tank as an integrated whole, choosing the best option based on equipment efficiency and demand for cooling. The software continuously collects data about plant operations, outside conditions, and hundreds of other parameters, then calculates how to operate for peak efficiency and adjusts set points of pumps, fans, and other components in real time.
The combination of OptimumLOOP® with the data analytics of the OptiCx® platform is what Optimum Energy calls True Optimization®. Johnson Controls paved the way by installing variable-speed drives on pumps and fans, adding power meters and sensors, and fully automating the plant before OptimumLOOP® was deployed.
The implementation at all three plants went smoothly. “From a building environment perspective, the system went through start-up seamlessly. Critical patient areas were not compromised,” says Kanoff. “Now they’re able to accomplish more, managing and operating the entire plant without the old white-knuckle approach.”
Energy and Cost Savings Beyond Expectations
Annual Cost Savings
vs. $261,000 originally projected — exceeding expectations by nearly $40,000/year
Annual Energy Savings
vs. 3.4 GWh projected — nearly 1 GWh more than expected, verified by the electric utility
One-Time Utility Incentive
Earned from the electric utility at project completion as a bonus incentive
CO₂ Emissions Saved
Initial verified CO₂ reductions — 3,220 tons/year ongoing carbon footprint reduction
Annual Water Savings
More than 1.44 million gallons of water saved per year from reduced energy consumption
Campuswide Energy Reduction
Total energy intensity reduction over 2009 levels — 4% added by this optimization project alone
Beyond Energy: Operational Gains
Through this project, we are more aware of energy efficiency and savings. It’s helping the team see the bigger picture — we’re not just providing chilled water, but we’re doing it as efficiently as possible and, ultimately, saving money.
Savings That Exceeded Every Projection.
The Hershey Medical Center project demonstrates what’s possible when a large healthcare campus commits to continuous optimization — even after years of efficiency gains. By deploying OptimumLOOP® and OptiCx® across three interconnected chiller plants as an integrated whole, Hershey achieved nearly 1 GWh more in annual savings than projected, earned a $416,000 utility incentive, and gave its operations team a new level of visibility and control.
“We are more aware of energy efficiency and savings,” says Kanoff. “It’s helping the team see the bigger picture.” With campuswide energy intensity now 24% below 2009 levels — and still improving — the Hershey Medical Center has set a new standard for large-scale healthcare energy optimization.
