The country’s first all-electric medical campus should be fully open in Irvine by 2025.
Spanning more than 800,000 square feet, and under the UCI Health umbrella, the medical campus will be powered by a central utility plant, an epicenter that will house all the equipment producing the electricity needed to power the facilities.
The 45,000-square-foot plant is all electric and solar-powered and will use state-of-the-art chillers for cooling and heating the hospital. The technology is currently in use at the UCI Medical Center in Orange.
“They’re highly efficient; they run 24/7,” Joe Brothman, facilities and general services director at UCI Health, said about the chillers. “They are a good example of the technology that we are going to be going live with in Irvine that we’ve been using for half a decade now at a highly reliable, highly safe manner.”
A sign for the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The buildings include: the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care; the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care; a 144-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room; two multi-story parking garages. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The central utility plant on the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The plant uses a series of electric boilers that use heat recovery technology to provide building heat, produce domestic hot water, and give steam for sterilization processes. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care is one of three buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The buildings include: the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care; the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care; a 144-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room; two multi-story parking garages. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The buildings include: the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care; the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care; a 144-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room; two multi-story parking garages. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The acute care hospital with an emergency room is one of three buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Two of the buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health are from left; the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care and at right is the acute care hospital with an emergency room. Not seen is the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care. All are currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
One of two parking garages at left, and the acute care hospital with an emergency room, at right, is one of three buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care is one of three buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and Campus in Irvine on Friday April 21, 2023. The buildings include: the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care; the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care; a 144-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room; two multi-story parking garages. The new medical center will be the first all-electric hospital in the nation with electric and solar power supplying all energy needs. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Given that this is to be the first all-electric hospital in the U.S., Brothman said, the building and equipment will go through an extensive “commissioning” process, where all the equipment and systems are tested to ensure they work properly.
Then, a team from different disciplines, including design, mechanical and construction, will develop a “sequence of operations” to test if the equipment can withstand different scenarios typical in a hospital — for example, setting a room temperature of 72 degrees with 45% humidity.
The process, Brothman said, is “ramping the system up to its maximum capacity showing us what temperatures and conditions the building can cool and heat itself under.”
Commissioning, or testing, he said, can also show when backup generator support is needed, determine how often the equipment needs maintenance and establish if the manufacturers’ maintenance cycles are adequate.
This process will begin as soon as construction is completed and before the hospital opens its doors in 2025.
“We still do have emergency generators that are going to be diesel fueled because that is something that we felt is a reliable technology for disaster preparedness,” Brothman said.
UCI Health is also exploring decarbonization plans for the UCI Medical Center in Orange.
“We are taking great steps in researching what options are available and what would be the best option for us given the very nature of energy prices,” Brothman said. “We are definitely looking at things through what’s the most reliable, safe and financially responsible things we should do here (in Orange).”
Located on the corner of Jamboree Road and Campus Drive in Irvine, the new medical campus will open in three phases — with the full hospital opening in 2025.
First to open in the spring of 2024 will be the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care, a 168,000-square-foot, five-story multidisciplinary facility, offering specialty adult and pediatric care.
The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building will also open in 2024. A 225,000-square-foot, five-story tower, the center will offer outpatient services with 36 private exam rooms and numerous infusion bays. It will be part of Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and will triple the available space for specialized cancer care.
Finally, a 350,000-square-foot, seven-story hospital will be operational in 2025, with 144 inpatient beds, 10 outpatient operating suites and a 24-hour emergency department.
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