The hospital’s last coal-fired boiler is scrapped

After years of planning, with the flick of a switch, Ashburton Hospital’s last coal-fired boiler was switched off and replaced with a new, efficient electricity system.

The $9 million system was converted Monday, preparing the hospital for future growth.

Berni Marra, general manager of rural health services at the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s Canterbury division, led a small group on a tour of the hospital, where the last coal-fired boiler was shut down to make way for the new system.

Those in attendance included Dan Wilson, Ashburton Hospital and Rural Services site maintenance manager, Terry Walker, New Zealand Ministry of Health facilities and engineers manager, Philippa O’Neill, Ashburton and Rural Health Services operations and management manager, and Mike Frude, project manager.

After a year of construction, the hospital replaced its more than 40-year-old boiler as part of a decarbonization project.

It is part of a $12 billion plan announced by the government in early 2020 to build and upgrade roads, railways, schools and hospitals.

The project replaced three coal-fired boilers with ground-source heat pumps, providing heating and hot water to all buildings on site.

This will reduce the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s carbon emissions by 2,385 tonnes per year, equivalent to the annual average emissions of 840 cars.

After a few days of testing the new system in stages, Wilson flicked a switch to shut down the hospital’s last functioning boiler, which was unlikely to survive another winter.

He estimated that engineers had been called out thousands of times over the years to repair the boiler, which was already extremely outdated.

Terry Walker, facilities and engineers manager, said the two large boilers were put into service in the mid-1960s.

These boilers were attended 24 hours a day by boiler operators until a small unattended boiler was added in 1985.

“It works into the night. The caregivers take up most of the workload during the day, while the patients who take care of the little ones keep us working,” he said.

“Even after 25 to 30 years, it was still on its last legs, and Dan has done a great job over the last six years keeping it going.”

The new system, built by Airtech NZ Ltd, consists of a ground-source heat pump installed in a new building behind the laboratory. It works similarly to a domestic heat pump, transferring heat energy from outdoor air to indoor spaces.

Real-time visibility of the system can be viewed remotely from anywhere via a computer.

“It monitors 28,000 different parameters. These are state of the art, there’s nothing better or more advanced in New Zealand,” Walker said.

Heat from groundwater is absorbed from a depth of 100 meters and circulated in the hospital’s heating system.

Replacing steam with hot water will reduce the hospital’s energy costs by approximately 30%.

The remaining water is drained back into the ground.

This project is one of 19 coal-fired boiler replacement projects carried out by the New Zealand Ministry of Health since 2020 and is the last coal-fired boiler replaced by the New Zealand Ministry of Health in Canterbury.

This is a major milestone in the decarbonisation programme, funded by the State Sector Decarbonisation Fund managed by the New Zealand Ministry of Health and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.