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In our previous article, we shared why flexibility is no longer a luxury for hospitals, but a powerful lever for reducing costs, limiting risks, and strengthening the continuity of care. In this follow-up article, we take you through how hospitals can make that flexibility a reality—with concrete steps that create room for agility, without ever losing sight of the essence: providing the best possible care to every patient.
Flexibility must support care and comfort processes, not disrupt them. This requires a pragmatic approach that prioritizes small, achievable steps. Hospitals that are already making smart choices today are gradually building an energy ecosystem that grows with their needs. A typical Flemish hospital illustrates what that process might look like in practice. This is a fictional, representative case; the technical approach and results described have been effectively applied in practice.
Many hospitals already have a building management system (BMS) that controls comfort and technical installations. This system often already provides insights into energy consumption and user behavior. The first step toward flexibility is to make smarter use of the existing control options within this BMS.
By expanding the BMS with real-time energy insights—such as HVAC, charging infrastructure, PV production, and emergency power installations—you lay the foundations for further optimization. These optimizations always take place within the comfort limits of patients and care processes. Only in later phases does this develop into a fully-fledged Energy Management System (EMS), which also processes external price and grid signals.
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Some hospitals are already required by Fluvius to provide remote monitoring for all decentralized production. This management system can centrally control and manage all decentralized production at a site. Without major additional investment, this requirement can be immediately utilized to control installations for flexibility gains.
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The wave of electrification requires a robust internal electricity grid. Hospitals that are already analyzing and strengthening their grid capacity can deploy flexible assets such as e-boilers, charging stations, or backup installations more efficiently. Where grid reinforcement is often a bottleneck, flexibility solutions such as battery storage, PV, and smart control offer a way to circumvent these limitations.
The electrification of installations such as PV, charging infrastructure, electric boilers, and heat pumps also requires smart control. The ability to switch based on price and grid signals is essential in this regard. By integrating flexible assets such as PV installations, charging stations, emergency power, heat pumps, e-boilers, or heat/cold storage, the comfort of care can be ensured and increased, but these installations also offer the possibility of flexible control.
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Fixed energy contracts hide price signals and limit the scope for flexibility, especially when it comes to own PV production or battery storage. Dynamic contracts, linked to a smart EMS, do offer the scope to strategically exploit price fluctuations.
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A great deal of flexibility can already be achieved with existing assets and minimal interventions in the BMS. With the integration of a fully-fledged EMS, existing assets can be controlled more intelligently. Think of emergency power generators, buffer tanks, electric boilers, or HVAC zones that can be switched manually or semi-automatically in the event of price spikes or grid load.
By making agreements with facility teams, hospitals can quickly achieve tangible impact without major investments or automation costs. A common step is to link an EMS to the existing BMS and read in dynamic injection rates; HVAC installations are then preferably tuned to solar production, while maintaining comfort priorities.
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Only when existing flexibility has been optimized will targeted investments be made in additional flexibility resources such as batteries or bidirectional charging stations. These investments will be supported by data from the previous steps, thereby avoiding oversizing.
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Flexibility is not just about maximizing profits, but about strengthening operational resilience. In an uncertain energy market, a smart, flexible energy system ensures that hospitals can continue to provide reliable care, regardless of price shocks or grid constraints. Flexibility reduces dependence on expensive fossil fuel imports and contributes to a more robust, sustainable energy system.
Furthermore, hospitals serve as role models for society. By visibly committing to smart energy management, they demonstrate how large institutions can support the energy transition in a concrete and targeted manner, without compromising on the quality of care.
Ingenium assists healthcare institutions, such as AZ Zeno, AZ Groeninge, UZA, UZ Gen... in identifying and activating their flexibility potential. Start with a Flexibility Scan and discover how your infrastructure can contribute to lower energy costs, greater security, and sustainable business operations.
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