Honeywell has been selected as the building automation provider for Australia’s new Melton Hospital, a 274-bed facility that will be Victoria’s first fully electric hospital.

Honeywell will help provide comprehensive management for building automation systems to optimise the hospital’s energy and operational efficiency.

Under a 25-year contract, Honeywell will install its building management technology including Forge enterprise performance management software to create a more energy efficient, automated and secure facility. As Victoria’s first healthcare facility using only electricity as an energy source, the hospital will help reduce emissions and support the state of Victoria’s progress to achieving net zero by 2050.

The integration of the Forge IoT platform will enable condition-based maintenance that helps improve the resiliency of critical systems around the clock, reduce unplanned reactive work and lower energy costs. Through Forge’s machine-learning capabilities that continuously study a building’s energy consumption patterns, the hospital will be able to adjust automatically to optimal energy-saving settings without compromising critical air quality.

“Honeywell’s technologically advanced building automation combined with our decades of experience in total asset management make us uniquely positioned to support the building services for the Melton Hospital both today and over the next 25 years,” said Lisa Whitehead, vice president at Honeywell. “As a partner to the Melton Hospital, we are committed to helping deliver Victoria’s first energy-efficient hospital that provides an optimum indoor environment with a best-in-class design built to address the critical needs of patients.”

The hospital will embed ecologically sustainable development (ESD) technologies to increase ecological efficiencies in all elements of the design, construction and operation of the development. Honeywell will manage the building in alignment with these efficiency goals, optimising peak energy demand, energy consumption and water consumption costs so the project remains flexible and adaptable to changing social and climatic conditions.

The hospital (www.vhba.vic.gov.au/health/hospitals/new-melton-hospital) will have a 24-hour emergency department, ambulatory care, maternity, neonatal, mental health and radiology services, as well as an education and training hub for doctors and nurses in Melbourne’s western region.

The hospital is being delivered as a public-private partnership: Western Health is the public operator of all clinical services and the Exemplar Health consortium, through a contract from the Victorian government, is responsible for the hospital’s financing, design, construction and maintenance for 25 years following the facility’s construction completion. The Exemplar Health consortium includes Capella Capital as sponsor and investor; Lendlease Infrastructure Investments and Invesis as investors; Lendlease as the builder; and Honeywell and Compass Group as facilities and maintenance management providers.

“This work will help deliver a critical uplift in the capacity of public health services in Melton,” said Sarah Neaves, director of Capella Capital (www.capellacapital.com.au). “As Melbourne’s outer west continues to grow, the Melton Hospital project will allow the hospital to better support its patients, families and staff. We look forward to working closely with the Victorian government, Western Health and consortium members to deliver this critical piece of health infrastructure.”

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is experienced in total asset management and public-private partnership projects, with a more than 30-year history working in Australia to support commercial buildings, healthcare and critical infrastructure.

Construction activities will start next year with completion of the hospital scheduled for 2029.