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Montefiore Supplies Its Own Power

No Burden on the City's Power Grid as Temperatures Rise

As temperatures soared into the triple digits and Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for conservation measures to save energy last week, Montefiore Medical Center did more than just turn off a few lights.

It remained entirely off the Con Ed power grid.

"We made the decision not to put any extra burden on Con Ed's power lines unless we absolutely had to," said Edward Pfleging, vice president of engineering.

Thirteen years ago, Montefiore built its own 14-megawatt co-generation plant, thereby allowing the hospital to generate and provide reliable, efficient energy that does not depend on outside energy producers or distributors. This became an attractive option after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission mandated in the late 1980s that public utilities make backup services available to co-generators.

At the time, co-generation was not a new concept. But what was new was the use of the technology in a hospital setting. Montefiore is the only hospital in New York City to have a co-generation plant. It relies on this system for daily supplies of energy, while remaining interconnected with Con Ed just in case there is ever any power failure.

For Montefiore, the plant was an investment in a long-term solution to eliminate vulnerabilities in infrastructure.

When the "blackout of 2003" hit, Montefiore was able to keep its doors open and all of its services up and running, proving that an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.

Last week, when Yankee and Shea stadiums dimmed their lights and Morgan Stanley turned off its Times Square ticker, Montefiore saved the city at least 8 megawatts of power a day.

"With the extreme temperatures, our power usage could easily have climbed to 8.4 megawatts of power a day. We could have reached the capacity of our co-generation plant," said Mr. Pfleging. "But we implemented conservation steps throughout the hospital: shutting off nonessential lights in common areas, drawing blinds, turning off computers. By saving energy, our own co-generation plant met our needs, and we didn't have to draw on Con Ed's power."