In a hospital environment, balancing the needs of critical 24/7 operations with energy efficiency is no easy task. At Regionshospitalet Randers, this challenge has been addressed head-on with the help of Ento’s AI. Between 2021 and 2023, significant reductions in energy consumption were achieved, saving approximately 260,000 kWh annually. This equals CO2 savings of 63 tons, all verified and supported by Ento.

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Regionshospitalet Randers, part of Denmark's Midtjylland region, faced the challenge of managing significant energy consumption across its facilities. The hospital’s high demand for water, heat, and electricity, especially in critical areas such as the acute care units, energy optimisation became an urgent priority.

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Unlike conventional buildings, hospitals require energy strategies tailored to their unique operational needs. Clinical areas such as operating theatres have stringent hygiene standards and need to be ready at a moment's notice and wards need to guarantee uninterrupted service, while office spaces can have lower energy demands during off-hours.

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"It’s a hospital that operates 24/7, with a huge focus on patient safety. That makes implementing changes difficult.”

– Søren Schmidt Pedersen, Region Midtjylland

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However, identifying the most impactful energy-saving opportunities proved difficult for the hospital's technical team due to the sheer volume of data as well as external factors such as weather and usage patterns. On top of that, the need to maintain sterile environments made it difficult to implement energy-saving measures without risking patient safety.

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Tailored insights for complex environments

“If I don’t achieve any energy savings, I am basically not doing my job,” says Søren Schmidt Pedersen, the hospital's energy project leader. However, he found it particularly time-consuming to analyse energy consumption across different systems and buildings to identify and verify areas for improvement.

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Ento's analysis allowed the technical team to focus their efforts on areas with the most potential for savings, saving time and resources. Instead of manually poring over data and making educated guesses, the hospital’s energy managers received prioritised recommendations from the platform on where to take action next.

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In one key example, the ventilation system of the building, which houses the emergency department among other units, was operating at the same capacity day and night – despite lower demand during night-time hours. Ento’s AI suggested a more optimised schedule, forecasting potential annual savings of DKK 20,000 by adjusting the system's settings.

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Uncovering water leakage 

Ento’s detailed analysis also helped the energy team to uncover small but persistent changes in consumption. The platform flagged an unexplained increase in water consumption, alerting the technical team to a potential issue with a leaking tap or malfunctioning toilet in the psychiatric ward that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, leading to unnecessary costs over time.

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Removing bias led to unexpected insights 

Another advantage of using Ento’s AI is that it can evaluate the influence of third-party data like weather and temperature on energy consumption. The local energy team had always assumed that wind from the west was affecting the temperature in one of the hospital’s buildings – but Ento showed that it was actually wind from the south that was the issue.

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This new understanding prompted a shift in the energy team’s heating and ventilation strategy, leading to more targeted and effective energy management.

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"Ento’s AI helps by removing the bias from our individual assumptions and provides an objective analysis. The platform ensures our calculations are comparable and accurate across different systems, which is invaluable in a large organisation like ours."

– Søren Schmidt Pedersen, Region Midtjylland

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Vital tool to achieve sustainability goals

Looking forward, Regionshospitalet Randers is committed to contributing to the region's sustainability strategy. "The region’s goal is to reduce electricity and heat consumption by over 48 GWh by 2030. We’re on track in Randers, but there’s still work to be done,” tells Søren Schmidt Pedersen.

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Ento will continue to play a vital role in achieving this ambitious target by providing the insights and tools needed to identify, implement, and scale energy-saving initiatives across the hospital’s diverse and complex environments – all while maintaining a comfortable indoor environment for all occupants and high standards of patient safety.

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If you want to learn more about Søren and his job as an energy manager at Region Midtjylland, head to our YouTube channel for episode 2 of our “Energy Hero” series.

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