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| Contributed photo Shawn Anderson, chief operating officer, and Jim Cavagnaro, physical plant manager at Cary Medical Center, at left, confer with two employees of Mechanical Services Inc., the primary contractor involved with the hospital’s conversion project from fuel oil to compressed natural gas. |
CARIBOU — Cary Medical Center has begun a major energy conversion from fuel oil to compressed natural gas (CNG). The project, which expects to save the hospital some $250,000 annually in energy costs, involves the conversion of four boilers and the development of a concrete pad that will hold the decompression building where trucks will routinely deliver trailers of natural gas. Underground piping to connect the gas cylinders to the hospital’s boiler room will also be installed.
The project is creating work for a number of local contractors. The primary contractor is Mechanical Services Inc. Shawn Anderson, chief operating officer at Cary, said the conversion comes at a good time for local contractors.
“This is the time of year when a lot of outside projects are closing down for the season,” said Anderson, who is heading up the project for Cary. “It’s nice that we have been able to have this project create more activity for a few more weeks and we are glad that we were able to complete the work with local contractors.”
The process of converting the hospital’s four main boilers to accept compressed natural gas is well under way and will take another several weeks to complete. The concrete pad has been placed and work will soon begin on the trenching, where the pipes carrying the gas will be installed. The site will be secured by erecting security fencing, outside lighting, jersey barriers and security cameras. Jim Cavagnaro, physical plant manager at Cary, said work is steadily moving along.
“We have been very pleased with the pace of the work and we expect the project to be completed by early December,” said Cavagnaro. “It’s great to work with local contractors, people you know can really do the job and who are used to working in the County this time of year.”
The hospital’s board of directors approved the compressed natural gas transition earlier this year. The cost of the project is approximately $600,000 and represents a major investment for the hospital, but according to Anderson, the investment will lead to a very positive return.
“We anticipate that the payback on this project will be in about two and a half years. After that we will see an annual savings of some $250,000. We have negotiated a very beneficial contract on the compressed gas over the next five years and we are confident that the price of natural gas will be much less volatile than fuel oil.
“This project will lead to substantial savings for us and represents another part of our ongoing effort at Cary to reduce our energy cost,” he added.
The annual fuel cost for the hospital has averaged approximatel $750,000. Facilities manager Cavagnaro said the conversion of the four primary boilers at the hospital will allow them the capacity to burn both natural gas and fuel oil.
“The ability to burn either natural gas or fuel oil is very important in the event of any dramatic changes in the energy picture, but we are very confident that natural gas will be our major energy source of the future,” said Cavagnaro.
The hospital has contracted with Xpress Natural Gas (XNG) for its gas supply and has designed the project as a “turnkey” operation with the intent of being fully operational with CNG at the beginning of the 2013-14 heating season.
