The Princess Royal Hospital, Telford had a problem: in an effort to reduced energy costs, and to meet government targets for the reduction of GHG emissions, they had installed a steam generating CHP. However, to gain maximum financial return from the investment in CHP it is essential to keep it running for as long as possible when electricity prices are high. The savings occur because gas is less expensive than imported electricity, and the waste heat is virtually free. But , the CHP could not produce enough heat on its own to supply all of the Trust's DHW, process, and space-heating needs so, the additional amount of steam was made up by 4 old coal-fired boilers. However, to do this, in the existing configuration, the waste-heat boiler required priority of supply over all the other boilers, i.e. the others must be controllable.
Unfortunately the coal-fired boilers cannot react quickly to changes in demand, and even when running on stand-by generate relatively high heat. This mean that often the CHP could not operate because the steam from the coal boilers and the CHP was greater than the demand, and the CHP waste- heat boiler “tripped out”.

Cynergin identified that the appropriate solution was to replace the old coal boilers with new gas-fired ones which would have a number of efficiency and environmental bonuses and would allow: a faster reaction-time to changes in heat demand; the generation of heat to be CHP led; and, maximising the opportunity for electrical generation.

In any capital project, and particularly in respect of PPP/PFI projects, there are four basic questions that the procurement needs to answer satisfactorily: Will the Trust get what it wants? Can the Trust afford it? Does this represent good Value For Money? and, Can the Contractor deliver? With this project essentially about boilers, and in particular about the long-term specialist maintenance of the boilers, to ensure savings were delivered, Cynergin contracted with MCL Energy Limited, a top class maintenance company, to act at main contractor to the Trust.

A Trust spokesperson said, "At last we can start making savings from the CHP: Cynergin sorted out our problems and MCL will keep our system running efficiently for the next 12 years. This project not only saves money, but it will clean up local air pollution and help protect the wider environment in the long-term.”