USAID releases results of hospital energy and water audits: potential savings can reach JD100,000

The results of the USAID-funded audits clearly indicate the savings that the hospitals will achieve by implementing recommended savings measures, and provide an estimated pay back period of the initial investment associated with measures of implementation.

The potential savings for the eight participating hospitals, depending on the size of hospital, range from JD3,000 to JD100,000 per year, requiring investments that ranges from JD4,000-JD164,000.

The investment pay back period calculated range is less than 2 years with some as quickly as 8 months.

Beginning in February 2008, the USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) targeted hospitals in Jordan to integrate energy and water efficient applications and methods to their operating systems, in an attempt to raise awareness of more energy and water efficient applications and implement the practices. Eight private hospitals in Amman and Irbid participated in this initiative, allowing open access to their facilities to audit their systems.

These audits are the result of several months of collaboration between the USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) and the Private Hospitals Association (PHA) to effectively reduce energy and water consumption levels and costs to Jordanian hospitals with the aim of conserving scarce resources, and increase their competitiveness.

The eight participating hospitals received results from their respective audits and are taking responsibility for implementing the recommended changes.

Some of the recommended changes include controlling lighting operations using occupancy sensors, replacing incandescent lamps with new compact fluorescent lamps, improving heat exchange efficiency of heating boilers by burner's calibration and maintenance, installing solar thermal systems, reducing water consumption by replacing and adjusting water fixtures, and harvesting the rejected water through water treatment systems.

The USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) will continue to provide technical assistance and advice to the hospitals on following through with the recommended changes.

For this purpose, the Program in cooperation with specialized private sector firm, Energy Management Services (EMS), held a roundtable yesterday to disseminate the results of the audit and discuss how hospitals can be further encouraged to implement savings measures.

In her remarks, USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) Deputy Chief of Party Carol Swan, stressed the importance of such initiatives to the local economy "The reason that an economic development program is involved in an initiative such as this, is because economic development is linked to the availability of resources such as water." She added "By moving to implement energy and water saving practices, we not only save water but tap into the abundant pool of Jordanian engineers and support them in developing new businesses in the fields of energy and water conservation."

Energy efficiency and water conservation are areas of considerable concern for Jordan due to the lack of local energy resources and scarcity of water resources needed to meet the demands for social and economic development.

This heavy burden on the local economy requires the implementation of energy and water efficiency measures to reduce the impact of resource scarcity on the economy.

Through efficient use of available resources by eliminating waste and improving the technologies, businesses achieve conservation gains without negatively effecting production or the standard of living.

Businesses realize these conservation gains through specific technical and management programs, tools, practices and behavior modification aimed at improving energy and water use patterns.

At the roundtable, some hospitals indicated they have already started actively making changes either by adapting energy saving techniques or by raising the awareness levels of hospital employees to conserve scarce resources.

The next steps is for the hospitals to develop implementation plans outlining the stages of implementation, conditions and challenges they face.

The USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) is a five year broad economic development initiative implemented by BearingPoint, Inc. and a sizeable team of international and Jordanian partner firms.


By both supporting improvements in the business environment and providing assistance to expand innovation and productivity in Jordanian businesses, it supports the main objective of building up the private sector as a powerful engine of economic growth.