A comprehensive and forward-looking energy strategy for Europe’s hospitals
Are you sure you are not wasting €100 000 per year on your energy budget?
For companies with an annual energy spend of around €2 million, commodity and non-commodity combined, savings are often hiding in plain sight.
In practice, organisations achieve an average saving of 8% on the commodity part of their energy budget. Not through luck or market timing, but through structure.
Those savings typically come from three levers:
- Contract tendering
- Click strategy
- Invoice control
Yet one lever is underestimated.
Clicks without a strategy feel active, but reduce control.
Most click decisions happen reactively.
Prices rise. Budgets come under pressure. A click is made.
It feels like active management.
In reality, there is no predefined decision framework.
Each click becomes a one-off decision.
Uncertainty increases. Budget control decreases.
Depending on market conditions and risk profile, power and gas click moments makes up to a 20% difference in the commodity price.
“The misunderstanding about click strategy is that it’s a choice between fully fixed or fully floating. The real value lies in between. By aligning click moments with budget targets and risk appetite, you build a unit price that leaves room to benefit from market evolutions.”
Volatility is not the enemy. Disorganization is.
Looking at historical forward prices, the same pattern repeats itself every year.
Within a single delivery year, electricity and gas prices often fluctuate by tens of percent.
This means the exact same volume can be fixed at very different prices within the same year.
- Companies that fix everything at once depend entirely on timing.
- Companies that spread decisions build their price step by step and end up closer to the market average.
- Organisations that take those decisions within a predefined framework consistently perform better than the average.
Not by predicting the market.
But by organising decisions.
A click strategy starts from your organisation.
A well-designed click strategy answers critical questions:
- How sensitive is your budget to price fluctuations?
- What level of risk is acceptable?
- Which volumes must be secured, and which can fluctuate?
- Over what time horizon are decisions spread?
These answers translate into a clear framework with predefined click moments, bandwidths and rules.
Without structure, volatility controls you.
With structure, volatility becomes a tool.
Europe Hospitals operates from two sites in the heart of Brussels: St-Elisabeth (Uccle) and St-Michiel (Etterbeek). In this urban context, the hospital strives for measurable results to check off its sustainability objectives. Accordingly, achieving ISO 14001 certification is also on its roadmap.
Bruno Le Fevere, Europe Hospitals’ Technical explains:
‘The Energy Reduction Plan is our guideline to structurally save energy costs and CO₂.’
We started by listing all energy-saving measures and projects. The business case should always be environmentally and financially sound, so we quantified their impact in terms of euros and CO₂ savings. We have catalogued the measures in payback times of up to 5 years and from 5 to 10 years. Following the Pareto principle, we start with the most impactful projects having the shortest payback time. We are pursuing a carefully crafted energy strategy to address short- and long-term goals.
We have successfully implemented the initial phases of our plan, incorporating solar panels and installing Combined Heat and Power units (CHPs). Everything gained momentum when a budget was made available from the Community Commission for Brussels Hospitals. Our long-term plan was already taking shape, allowing us to submit projects quickly.
‘AYA is putting its shoulder to the wheel to take this energy reduction plan further and is also working on our flexibility project’
Flexibility project creates a significant revenue stream
We are in the process of reconverting our emergency generators, including stabilising the Belgian grid. We aspire for these advanced motors to generate a substantial revenue stream for our hospital, securing the most favourable deal for us.
Our AYA Energy Manager, Emilie, has listed the deployable assets for the flexibility market to organise the market consultation. Additional assets, such as our CHPs and chillers, are also part of the inventory assessment. We discover multiple possibilities beyond our initial thought. Regarding flexibility, we aim to align our energy consumption with market benefits. In het kader van flexibiliteit willen we trouwens ook een betere afstemming van ons energieverbruik op de voordelen van de markt.
On top of the Energy Reduction Plan, we want to maximise our power from renewable energy. Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are necessary for our hospital to hedge our energy budget, providing a reliable source of cost-effective green energy.