Consulting Engineering
In 2023, Centra Health embarked on a Facilities Modernization Plan—a multi-year initiative that will encompass the most significant facility improvements and capital investments in Centra's 36-year history. The plan's first phase includes the revitalization and expansion of Centra's Lynchburg, Virginia campus. By modernizing this campus with contemporary facilities and innovative technologies, Centra aims to increase patient access and enhance both critical and specialty care in central Virginia for years to come.
Aiming to add a 200,000 SF addition to existing 600,000 SF campus without increasing total energy consumption, CMTA helped Centra rethink the future of the campus's central utility plant. To deliver 21st-century healthcare, Centra is implementing innovative geothermal HVAC strategies to reduce energy consumption for both the expansion and the entire campus. To minimize the cost and size of the geothermal wellfield, CMTA used several rightsizing and heat recovery design strategies. For instance, by reducing the air handling capacity by over 20%, Centra will save over $2M in first costs.
Further, a study of existing loads revealed significantly more available chilled water and heating capacity in the existing plant than was previously thought. This allowed the new chillers to be right-sized and utilize existing redundancy in the plant. The resulting design integrates a new 300-ton heat recovery chiller to reject heat into existing hot water loops, coupled to a new 300-ton water-to-water geothermal heat pump chiller. Both efficient and cost-effective, this system provides superior energy efficiency and allows Centra to take advantage of federal Inflation Reduction Act rebates, estimated at over $10M.
Scheduled to be completed in 2027, the facility is set to become the first geothermal coupled HVAC system to serve a full acute care inpatient hospital in the Commonwealth of Virginia. CMTA's innovative, future-focused engineering solutions not only lowered first costs but also maximized the life cycle cost savings and improved the energy efficiency and resiliency of Centra's Lynchburg campus.
