Fueling Hospitals Across Pennsylvania

There are approximately 190 community hospitals in Pennsylvania, according to the American Hospital Association. Many of these hospitals, and numerous other health care facilities, are UGI customers as UGI provides natural gas service in 45 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties and electric service in Luzerne and Wyoming counties.

An economic impact report released this past December from the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania discusses the economic implications of COVID-19 on Pennsylvania hospitals: “Economic factors exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic threaten the economic foundation that the commonwealth’s hospitals and health systems provide. Even prior to the onset of COVID-19, Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems faced financial stress.”

Given the pandemic’s strain on hospitals, we’re pleased to help provide these essential health care facilities with affordable energy, providing price stability and reliability in an otherwise volatile past year. Among the hospitals UGI serves are Geisinger Medical Center (discussed below), Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Lancaster General Hospital, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (featured on page 3), and Reading Hospital. These five customers are unique in that UGI worked with them on their respective Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system installations. Also known as cogeneration, these systems use natural gas to generate on-site electricity and useful thermal energy in an integrated system, providing numerous benefits.

The increased efficiency of CHP systems not only translates to energy costsavings, but also emissions reductions. And by producing electricity on site, these hospitals are able to continue their critical care in the event of a disaster or electric grid failure.

UGI looks forward to helping additional Pennsylvania hospitals adopt CHP applications and develop other efficiency projects. Moreover, we’re committed to continuing to provide affordable energy to help all customers recover from the impact of COVID-19.