Our services at Saint-Pierre’s University Hospital, part of the IRIS hospital network, go back to 2010. At that time, we installed a CHP with a capacity of 1.5 megawatts on the campus at Porte de Hal in the centre of Brussels.
We also made additional adjustments to the heating system in the buildings. The lower return temperatures achieved by doing this, allowed the CHP to run for more hours and thus create greater added value. We optimised the efficiency, much more than was usual at the time. Our installation supplied (and still does to this day) 50% of the electricity demand throughout the hospital and 70% of the heat demand.
In 2020, we also placed a CHP installation of 210 kWe on the neighbouring campus César De Paepe, also a branch of the Saint-Pierre hospital in Brussels. The heat produced by this CHP is injected into the central heating system of the hospital, in parallel with the existing classic gas boilers.
Steven De Vroede, Director Engineering & Project Management Luminus Solutions: “The installation of the CHP in 2010 was a logistical challenge. To start with, the Saint-Pierre hospital is located in the Marolles, right in the centre of Brussels. At the time of the installation, work was still ongoing on the shell of a new ten-storey hospital building. Three large tower cranes were already in place for this construction work. In between, we placed an extra crane to lift the CHP – the engine alone weighed 15 tonnes – over the building shell and lower it on the other side. On top of that, the street where the CHP was lowered was a thoroughfare for the emergency services, and we had to take that into account as well.”