Orange County Register features all-electric UCI Health — Irvine

Central utility plant to provide clean power to medical campus

The acute care hospital with an emergency room is one of three
buildings of the new medical center campus of UCI Health
currently under construction at the intersection of Jamboree and
Campus in Irvine. (Credit: Mark Rightmire, Orange County
Register/SCNG)

IN THE NEWS: UCI Health — Irvine, a 1.2 million-square-foot medical campus with 800,000 square feet of clinical space, will be powered by clean energy generated by a state-of-the-art central utility plant running on solar and electric power.

Joe Brothman, director of facilities and general services at UCI Health, spoke to the Orange County Register about the 45,000-square-foot plant and its chillers, which heat and cool the hospital.

“They’re highly efficient; they run 24/7. They are a good example of the technology that we are going to be going live with in Irvine that we’ve been using for a half decade now.”

Because the hospital will be the first all-electric one in the country, the central utility plant building and equipment will undergo extensive testing. Design, mechanical and construction teams will develop a “sequence of operations” to test various typical hospital scenarios.

UCI Health — Irvine, a new medical complex under construction at the north end of the UC Irvine campus, will bring unparalleled expertise and the finest evidence-based care that only an academic medical system can offer to the communities of coastal and south Orange County.

As part of UCI Health — which includes the flagship UCI Medical Center in Orange, Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and multiple outpatient care locations — the new 1.2 million-square-foot campus will offer key clinical programs in oncology, digestive health, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and spine surgery.

The nation’s first all-electric, carbon-neutral medical center, UCI Health — Irvine will be home to:

• The Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care, a five-story, 168,000-square-foot medical facility offering the full range of multidisciplinary specialty care for children and adults under a single roof, urgent care services, the Center for Children’s Health and the UCI Health Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders — Opening spring 2024
• The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building, a five-story, 225,000-square-foot tower with 36 private exam rooms, numerous infusion bays and operating rooms — Opening 2024
• A seven-story, 350,000-square-foot, acute care hospital with 144 inpatient beds, 10 operating suites and a 24-hour emergency department with 20 treatment rooms — Opening 2025

Read more:

• Orange County Register: Irvine will be home to country's first all-electric hospital ›
• Anesthesiology team to 'Green the OR’ with carbon-neutral operating rooms ›
• UCI Health recognized as Conservation Champion by water efficiency group ›
• UCI Health and its sustainability commitment ›