A typical load profile for a hospital might show heat energy increases in the winter, with electric demand peaks in the summer as seen in Figures 1 and 2.

This hospital will save well over $500,000 per year by weaving tri-generation (heat, cooling, and power) into its central plant infrastructure. Tri-gen for this hospital will provide a simple payback of less than seven years when the avoided cost of replacing an old chiller with a new DX chiller is included. Add the avoided cost of an emergency generator and/or boiler, and the payback drops even more.