How a Hospital Delivered an Energy Study On-the-Spot — Saving Months and Up to $30K
A case study on how continuous energy monitoring with ControlCom Connect allowed a hospital to instantly provide an engineering firm with a complete energy study for a planned addition.
When a hospital plans an addition or renovation, one of the first things an engineering firm needs is a detailed energy study. This study provides a comprehensive picture of the facility’s current energy consumption, demand profiles, load characteristics, and capacity — all critical for designing the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems of the new addition.
Traditionally, this is a long and expensive process.
The Traditional Approach: Months of Waiting and Thousands of Dollars
An energy study for a hospital addition typically involves:
- Deploying temporary monitoring equipment across the facility’s electrical infrastructure
- Collecting data over several months to capture seasonal variations, peak demand events, and baseline consumption patterns
- Engaging a third-party consulting firm to analyze the data and produce a formal energy study report
- Coordinating access and logistics with hospital operations to ensure monitoring equipment doesn’t interfere with critical systems
This process can take 3 to 6 months from start to finish and cost the hospital up to $30,000 depending on the size and complexity of the facility. During this time, design work on the addition is often delayed, waiting on the energy data that the engineering team needs to size equipment, plan electrical distribution, and meet code requirements.
The ControlCom Connect Advantage: Data Already in Hand
This particular hospital had been running ControlCom Connect as part of its ongoing facility monitoring program. The platform was already collecting real-time data from the hospital’s electrical infrastructure, including:
- Demand profiles — peak and average demand across all metered points
- Load factor analysis — how efficiently the facility uses its available electrical capacity
- Consumption trends — daily, weekly, and seasonal energy usage patterns
- Power quality metrics — voltage, current, and power factor data across circuits
When an engineering firm was engaged to design a planned addition to the hospital, they requested a comprehensive energy study — expecting the usual multi-month timeline.
The Result: An Instant Energy Study
Instead of initiating a months-long data collection process, the hospital’s facilities team simply pulled the data directly from ControlCom Connect. Within hours, the engineering firm had:
- Historical demand and consumption data spanning the full monitoring period
- Load profiles broken down by circuit, building section, and time of day
- Peak demand analysis with precise timestamps and contributing factors
- Capacity headroom calculations showing available electrical capacity for the new addition
The engineering firm received exactly the data they needed — formatted, contextualized, and ready for design work — without a single piece of temporary monitoring equipment being installed.
The Impact
The benefits were immediate and significant:
- Time saved: The energy study that would have taken 3–6 months was delivered on the spot
- Cost avoided: The hospital avoided up to $30,000 in consulting and temporary monitoring fees
- Design accelerated: The engineering firm could begin design work immediately, keeping the project on schedule
- Better data quality: Continuous monitoring data was more comprehensive and accurate than a short-term temporary study would have provided
Why Continuous Monitoring Changes the Equation
This case study illustrates a broader shift in how facilities can approach energy management. Traditional energy studies are point-in-time snapshots — expensive to produce and outdated the moment they’re complete. Continuous monitoring with a platform like ControlCom Connect transforms energy data from a periodic project into an always-available resource.
For hospitals and other complex facilities, this means:
- Always audit-ready — energy data is available on demand for any purpose
- Faster project timelines — no waiting months for data collection when planning additions or renovations
- Lower total cost of ownership — the monitoring infrastructure serves multiple purposes beyond a single energy study
- More accurate baselines — long-term continuous data captures seasonal and operational variations that short-term studies miss
Conclusion
What once required months of planning, temporary equipment deployment, and tens of thousands of dollars was accomplished in hours — simply because the data was already being collected. For hospitals considering additions, renovations, or energy optimization projects, continuous monitoring with ControlCom Connect eliminates one of the most significant bottlenecks in the design process.
The question is no longer “How long will the energy study take?” but rather “What else can we do with the data we already have?”