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New York State has awarded a $1 million grant to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to help construct a clean and efficient cogeneration plant that will improve New York State's environment and energy security while lowering the Hospital's energy costs.

The grant is one of 32 grants totaling $15.5 million given to organizations statewide. NewYork-Presbyterian is one of only two grant recipients to receive the maximum amount of $1 million.

The grant will help fund the creation of a cogeneration plant at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center with an expected completion date in 2007. Once operational, the new plant is expected to lower the NewYork-Presbyterian's annual energy bill by approximately $5 million.

Cogeneration is a combined heat and power generation system, which, compared to traditional generation, provides much greater overall efficiency by converting waste heat from electricity generation into usable energy.

"The Hospital does not currently generate any of its own power, except in the event of an outage when we employ our emergency generators. The new cogeneration plant will provide NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell with 100 percent of its base electric requirements and two-thirds of its peak electric requirements," says Robert Volland, Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Facilities at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. "The benefits of the new plant include additional back-up power, greater steam reliability, and substantially less nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide output."

"New York State is leading the nation in deploying and demonstrating on-site distributed generation technologies," Governor George E. Pataki says. "This technology enables energy users to take control of their energy costs while benefiting the State's environment, economic development, and energy security. This funding will help reduce costs for energy consumers and enhance the quality of the environment today and for future generations."

NewYork-Presbyterian is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 2005 "ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year," in recognition of the Hospital's energy efficiency accomplishments, including the establishment of a $1.5 million budget for energy efficiency retrofits and energy-saving incentives for Hospital employees. NewYork-Presbyterian is currently among the top five percent of electricity consumers in New York City.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital – based in New York City – is the nation's largest not-for-profit, non-sectarian hospital, with 2,455 beds. It provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory, and preventive care in all areas of medicine at five major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Allen Pavilion, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division. One of the largest and most comprehensive health-care institutions in the world, the Hospital is committed to excellence in patient care, research, education, and community service. It ranks among the top ten in U.S.News & World Report's guide to "America's Best Hospitals," has the greatest number of physicians listed in New York magazine's "Best Doctors" issue, and is included among Solucient's top 15 major teaching hospitals. The Hospital has academic affiliations with two of the nation's leading medical colleges: Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System – which includes acute-care and community hospitals, long-term care facilities, ambulatory sites, and specialty institutes – is committed to providing high-quality, cost-effective, and conveniently accessible care to communities throughout the tri-state metropolitan region. The System serves one in four patients in the New York metropolitan area.