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Enhancing the potential of smart building for general hospital: a case study in Malaysian hospital


Mohd Faisal Baharuddin
Chin Haw Lim
Ahmad Fazlizan

Abstract

Hospital Pulau Pinang is the general hospital in Malaysia which targeting energy savings of 10% within five years from 2015 and other  sustainability targets such as 3-star Energy Management Gold Standard and Green Building Certification. The targets are beneficial for  the hospital itself to establish the Smart Building Program to improve its energy efficiency concurrent with the green policy of the  Ministry of Health Malaysia and Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. This paper reviews the background of Hospital  Pulau Pinang energy data , energy consumption trending, energy-saving trending, and energy conservation measures taken for the  hospital from 2015 to December 2021.The yearly energy consumption baseline taken in 2016 was 27,496,731.00 kWh. It reduced  significantly to 21,356,063 kWh in 2021 due to energy conservation measures. As a result, Hospital Pulau Pinang has achieved energy- saving about 16% at approximately RM7.3 million reduction in operational expenditure. The main objective of this paper is to provide  further potential energy savings by studying the energy reduction by implementing solar photovoltaics using the simulation method. The  simulation method can predict that Hospital Pulau Pinang can achieve another 5,130,000 kWh energy savings annually. This type of  simulation has never been done before at a public hospital, and it will give further enhancing strategies to the Smart Building Program  itself. Furthermore, the potential of smart building can be maximized to the next level by simulation, which helps the hospital energy   committee make the potential decision on the energy-saving investment.


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eISSN: 2543-3717