By Jean-Marc Zola, Building Segment President, Schneider Electric

Energy: The significance in healthcare

Hospitals are energy-hungry buildings operating 24/7. They depend on advanced equipment and need tightly controlled environments to keep patients safe and comfortable. Additionally, the increasing demand on the healthcare system is causing more pressure on operational budgets. Here’s why:

  • Hospitals never sleep – Hospitals work around the clock. This means that HVAC and hot water systems alone can account for around 70 per cent of a hospital’s energy use.
  • Technology is a double-edged sword – While advancements in medical equipment, robotics, and digital transformation enhance patient care, they also increase energy consumption.
  • The global energy crisis – In some places, hospitals are seeing their electricity bills jump by 25 per cent or more as the cost of consumption has rocketed.
  • The planet is paying the price – The healthcare sector emits about two gigatons of CO₂ every year, which is equivalent to running 500 coal plants.

The all-electric hospital era

Healthcare is about saving lives, but ironically, the way we power hospitals is contributing to climate change and poor air quality. What’s the alternative?

The all-electric hospital is a bold, progressive model that’s already gaining traction around the world. It isn’t just about switching to electricity. It’s about reshaping how hospitals function –creating spaces that are smarter, more sustainable, and better for patients, providers, and the planet.

Key transformative ideas to enable all-electric hospitals are:

  1. Electrification – Replacing fossil fuels with clean, efficient electric systems.
  2. Digitalisation – Using real-time data and digital technology to drive better decisions.
  3. Integration – Connecting systems so they work together, not in silos.
  4. Automation – Letting intelligent systems handle routine tasks, so people can focus on delivering high-quality care.

Electrification: Powering care with clean energy

This transformation starts with replacing fossil-fuel-based systems, like gas boilers or diesel generators with electric alternatives. This enables hospitals to be more efficient and sustainable. Example solutions are electric systems and heat pumps, electric kitchens and sterilisation equipment, EV charging stations for ambulances and staff and on-site solar panels and battery storage.

Electrification isn’t just about replacing equipment. It’s about building infrastructure that’s future-ready, resilient, flexible, and capable of supporting new healthcare technology advances.

Digitalisation: Smarter, connected systems for better decisions

Imagine digital tools acting as your hospital’s central nervous system. IoT sensors monitor energy use, equipment health, and air quality. Digital twins let you simulate changes before implementation. Cloud platforms give you a real-time, centralised view of operations – so you can act quickly and confidently.

Integration: Breaking down the silos

Integration of systems allows the complexity of hospital environments to operate as one responsive ecosystem. Typically hospitals have several systems all operating in silos which causes challenges with understanding energy and clinical operation power needs. By integrating all systems, a hospital can run smoothly and technology communicates more effectively. This can be done with smart sensors that detect overcrowding or rising noise levels and automatically alert staff. Or, clinical teams can monitor critical systems, like backup power and isolation controls, in real time.

But integration isn’t just about what happens behind the scenes – it’s also reshaping the patient experience. At Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, a pilot with Schneider Electric is testing smart room technologies that let patients control lighting, temperature, and blinds from their bedside – boosting their independence while easing staff workloads.

This pilot is helping shape the new National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) – the UK’s first NHS net-zero hospital. With all-electric systems, solar panels, and intelligent automation, it shows how integration can make hospitals more sustainable, efficient, and empowering for everyone inside.

Automation: Enabling staff to focus on patients

Real-time data and rule-setting are key to automation, allowing staff to focus on patient care. For example, during a power grid failure, electricity is instantly rerouted to critical care units, ensuring life-saving equipment remains powered. Day-to-day operations are streamlined, with patient discharges triggering a seamless chain reaction, improving patient flow and accelerating room turnover. With AI, these systems continuously learn and become more efficient.

The all-electric hospital: Turning vision into reality

The all-electric hospital isn’t just about providing cleaner energy but enabling their buildings to be smarter. What’s more? This isn’t just theory, it’s already happening. Faced with rising utility costs and the need for uninterrupted care, the Daughters of Mary, a campus of critical care in US, turned to a smarter energy solution. Partnering with Schneider Electric and Citizens Energy Corporation, it implemented a custom solar-powered microgrid across four critical care facilities. The results? 24/7 clean, reliable energy, up to 1,300 metric tons of CO₂ emissions avoided annually, an estimated $1.3 million in energy savings over 20 years and uninterrupted care during power outages.

It’s a powerful example of how clean energy and digital infrastructure can support both sustainability and patient care today.

Making a significant shift like this isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. It starts with rethinking how hospitals consume, generate, and manage energy.

However, achieving this requires careful planning, long-term commitments, and strong partnerships. By collaborating with healthcare providers, policymakers, technology experts, designers, and grid operators, we can move more quickly and have a greater impact.

With the right technologies, insights, and partnerships, you can move forward with confidence. The all-electric hospital is no longer a far-off idea – it’s a real, achievable path to greater resilience, efficiency, sustainability, and better patient care.