As part of its multibillion-dollar hospital project, Indiana University Health built a two-story, 78,500-square-foot utility plant on the southern end of its campus. (Photo courtesy of Indiana University Health)
As part of its multibillion-dollar hospital project, Indiana University Health built a two-story, 78,500-square-foot utility plant on the southern end of its campus. (Photo courtesy of Indiana University Health)
• • •
Almost everything about Indiana University Health’s hospital under construction downtown is big, including its energy needs.

Officials from the Indianapolis-based academic health care system are preparing for a sharp, yearslong rise in energy use at their $4.3 billion hospital expected to open in late 2027, much higher than power needs at their current Methodist and University hospitals.

A typical academic health care center has a capacity to use 5.5 watts to 7 watts per square foot, according to Jim Mladucky, vice president of design and construction for IU Health. But IU Health is building its systems to handle up to 10.5 watts per square foot—an increase of at least 50% to accommodate future needs such as artificial intelligence.

IU Health’s downtown hospital complex will comprise 2.5 million square feet as part of a 44-acre campus spanning about eight square blocks, from 16th to 12th streets and from Capitol Avenue to Interstate 65.

The health care system’s plan to meet its energy needs includes working closely with its electricity provider, AES Indiana, building additional backup power systems and operating its own natural gas utility plant for heating and cooling.

The total number of beds, 864, is only slightly higher than the combined total for Methodist and University hospitals.

Why so much more juice?

“Technology,” Mladucky said.

IU Health said its new hospital campus will be Energy Star-certified, with at least LEED Silver—but “trending” toward Gold—certification to minimize carbon emissions and improve energy-efficiency.

But modern hospitals are industrial-scale consumers of energy, with 24/7 operations that include MRI and CT scanners, patient monitors, laundry and food service, equipment sterilization, and numerous tablets and computers used by staff.

Health care buildings in 2018 accounted for 4% of U.S. commercial floor space but 9% of energy consumption in commercial buildings, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

And although hospitals accounted for only 7% of all health care buildings, they accounted for 68% of health care electricity consumption and 82% of health care natural gas consumption, according to the agency. Electricity was the most used fuel in health care, followed by natural gas.

Much of IU Health’s anticipation of growing computing and energy needs reflects the broader demand for technology across the economy.

Colby Arnold, chief technology officer for IU Health, said internet bandwidth usage increases about 26% each year.

“The same thing is going to happen with us. We’re going to have continued growth and demand in health care,” Arnold said. “What’s unique about health care is just the explosion of the ‘internet of things.’”

He said the downtown facility will have 50,000 to 60,000 devices connected to its network, including diagnostic machines, laptops and wearable technology. That compares with about 30,000 connected devices today at Methodist and University hospitals.

“It’s really about the amount of devices that [will be] on our IU Health network and the power they consume,” he said.

Other new technologies include mobile robots.

An underground tunnel connecting the new hospital with its South Support Building will accommodate staff as well as 71 automatic guided vehicles, or AGVs, to move waste, linen and supplies throughout the buildings, vertically and horizontally.

AES Indiana, which supplies electricity to IU Health downtown, said it provides redundant, or backup, electricity service to hospitals in the areas it serves to ensure they have continuous power should one circuit experience an outage.

In anticipation of the IU Health project, AES Indiana in November 2024 invested in a 138 kilovolt substation to serve the hospital.

“Projects like this, as well as other potential large-load customer projects, are considered in the forecasted energy and capacity AES Indiana will need to reliably serve new customers as well as our existing customers,” AES Indiana spokesperson Mallory Duncan said in an email.

AES Indiana, which provides electricity to more than 530,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in and around Indianapolis, said it has taken an “all of the above” approach to energy.

The utility cited Pike County Battery Storage System, Hardy Hills solar facility and Hoosier Wind Facility. It also has begun a technical feasibility study of adding nuclear small modular reactors at its Eagle Valley (near Martinsville) and Petersburg (in Pike County) generating stations.

As part of its downtown project, IU Health constructed a two-story, 78,500-square-foot central utility plant south of the support building and hospital, equipped with chillers, boilers, heat-recovery coolers, steam for sterilization, and fire protection water and backup generators.

So that means with the new hospital, IU Health is servicing its own heating and cooling while still relying on AES Indiana for electricity and Citizens Energy Group for water and natural gas.

IU Health said it cost about $162 million to build the new central utility plant. The hospital system also said it will spend about nearly $10 million a year on energy needs at the new hospital, but it will be more energy efficient. Energy will cost about $4 per square foot in the new facility, compared with $5.22 a square foot in Methodist and University hospitals.

IU Health has a backup system that includes a battery-powered uninterrupted power source that immediately starts generators. The nine generators, with capacity for two more, run on fuel oil in an emergency to power the buildings for up to 96 hours, which IU Health said exceeds code requirements.

“We have all this redundancy built in just to make sure, if something goes down, we have something else to keep the operations moving forward,” said Bryan McHugh, a project director with construction manager AECOM Hunt who works on behalf of IU Health.

During the years of planning for the hospital, IU Health’s Mladucky said the hospital system considered creating a microgrid to produce its own energy. But he added, “You couldn’t get a large enough microgrid to supply all of the energy we needed.”

Instead, Mladucky said, IU Health sought to build the hospital to accommodate steep increases in energy needs as health care becomes more automated.

“We aren’t going to use all that power on day one. It’s more just long-range planning,” he said. “This [hospital] is supposed to last 75 years, so that investment is important to make upfront.”