Perpignan Hospital Centre

The Perpignan Hospital Centre, located in France, is one of the most extensive healthcare facilities in the region. The hospital complex is over 130,000M2, has over 1,000-beds, and offers various healthcare services from internal medicine to surgical care to psychiatric care. The ongoing project consists of a Global Performance Review and renovation of the HVAC system.

The main challenge of this project was the sheer size of the building and, therefore, the size and varying needs of the HVAC system. The hospital wanted to set up a system to control their operating costs and lower their environmental impact, particularly their greenhouse gas emissions. Developing a system of this size that could deliver on all these aspects was the team’s challenge.

Initial system analysis discovered that the existing valves on the air handling units (AHU) and substation were 3-way valves with linear characteristics and did not operate with the same efficiency and stability as pressure independent control valves with an electrical motor. The 3-way valves were replaced with TA-Modulators connected to TA-Sliders. This combination ensures that the HVAC network remains stable and allows the water flow rate to be adapted in real-time to real-world requirements, limiting overflow, which is the cause of energy overconsumption and user discomfort. 

Implementing this high-performance dynamic balancing system required that the fixed flow pumps be replaced with variable flow pumps. These two significant updates reduced flow rate and pump head power, increasing the system’s efficiency while lowering energy consumption.

The project is still ongoing and will be subject to commissioning phases with parameterisation of the theoretical operating points and measurement phases and thus qualify the correct operation of the installations.