Energy Efficiency and Importance of Energy Monitoring System in Moroccan Hospitals

Abstract

Hospitals or health care buildings are social facilities designed to provide care to patients, which operate in general over 24 hours/day. The energy efficiency of these facilities is an economic, environmental and societal choice [1] [2]. This paper tries to shed more light on this problem. The objective is to implement a scientific approach aimed at improving energy performance indicators of these facilities on one hand and the development of a good practices guide relating to energy efficiency in Moroccan hospitals based on benchmarking on the other [3]. To operate on energy optimization, it is necessary to start by measuring and monitoring the targeted parameters, significant energy uses and the energy performance indicators by means of an energy management system. To this end, several questions arise: Measuring what, where, how and at what cost? The old health buildings were generally thought through a care approach and not the cost of care or an energy performance approach. Hence these choices often lead to significant un-optimized energy consumption. Therefore, the energy consumptions were not the object of particular attention and the needs, no longer mastered, resulting in significant costs. The objective is to define factors that significantly impact energy performance whether they are static factors or relevant variable. The main points of our work is to try, through a preliminary analysis, to build a methodology on how to understand energy uses and evaluate energy performance levels. The desired economic performance must preserve or even improve the comfort of patients and medical staff, the continuity of service and the level of hygiene and safety.