Energy Solutions For Senior Living And Skilled Nursing Facilities
Senior living runs around the clock, and so does the energy bill. Catalyst Power combines retail electricity and gas supply, onsite combined heat and power, and financing with no upfront capital, so your facility spends less on energy and keeps its capital for resident care.
Upfront capital. Catalyst designs, funds, owns, and operates qualifying onsite systems under a long-term Energy Services Agreement.
Overall efficiency for combined heat and power, against roughly 50% for grid electricity plus a gas boiler.
Source: Catalyst’s CHP guideThe continuous heating, cooling, and hot water demand that drives your energy costs is exactly what makes onsite generation pay.
Supply, onsite generation, financing, monitoring, and maintenance under one agreement, with one point of accountability.
Why Is Energy One Of The Most Under-Managed Costs In Senior Care?
Because the three things that drive it, continuous demand, fixed reimbursement, and aging central plant equipment, rarely get evaluated together. Most senior living facilities shop for a better supply rate, push the boiler replacement out another year, and leave the largest opportunity untouched.
Rising Energy Costs Come Straight Out Of The Margin
Electricity and natural gas prices move. Reimbursement rates mostly do not. Every increase in utility spend lands on the operating margin instead of passing through. Commercial electricity rates in New England ran 74% above the national average in March 2026, and Mid-Atlantic rates 35% above, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Procurement structured around your facility’s consumption history and budget priorities, so the number your finance team plans around holds.
Aging Infrastructure Competes With Resident Care For Capital
Boilers, chillers, and older CHP units stay in service long after their reliability and economics have changed. Replacing or repowering that equipment takes capital that is already committed to staffing, resident care, and other facility priorities.
Catalyst funds, owns, and operates qualifying replacements and repowers. The upgrade happens without a capital request.
24/7 Demand, 365 Days A Year
Heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water, kitchens, laundry, medication refrigeration, and clinical spaces never shut off. The Kings Park facility in Catalyst’s case study has to keep resident areas between 71 and 81°F year-round. That load profile is why CHP fits senior living facilities better than almost any other building type.
Onsite generation sized to your base load, with recovered heat covering space heating and domestic hot water.
Resident Comfort Is Not A Discretionary Expense
Temperature, indoor air quality, and hot water cannot be dialed back when budgets tighten. Any energy strategy for senior care facilities has to reduce cost without touching the environment residents live in.
Design, installation, monitoring, and maintenance are planned around care operations. Catalyst manages the energy. Your team manages the care.
Three Solutions, Evaluated Together
Every facility’s mix is different. Catalyst evaluates all three against your load profile, infrastructure, and budget, then builds the combination that fits.
Retail Electricity & Gas
Custom-priced supply products built around your facility’s consumption history, so utility spend becomes a number you budget against instead of a variable you react to. Switching completes by the end of the next full billing cycle.
Commercial electricity & gas →Onsite CHP (Cogeneration)
A natural gas engine generates electricity onsite, and the recovered heat supplies space heating and domestic hot water. Senior living’s round-the-clock thermal demand makes it one of the strongest fits for combined heat and power.
Cogeneration →Infrastructure Upgrades & Financing
Qualifying systems are designed, financed, owned, and operated by Catalyst under a long-term Energy Services Agreement. You buy the energy the system produces at a rate below what the utility charges. No capital outlay, no balance sheet impact.
How the no-capital model works →Lower Energy Costs Today. Modern Infrastructure For The Long Term.
Senior care operators should not have to choose between managing this year’s energy costs and replacing a 20-year-old boiler. The four steps below happen under one agreement, with one point of accountability.
Optimize energy spend today
Catalyst analyzes your meter data and consumption history, then secures electricity and natural gas supply structured around your load and budget priorities. Nothing changes with the utility that maintains your lines, poles, and meters.
Built For Your Facility And Your Portfolio
Whether you operate one building or a multi-property portfolio, the approach adapts to the facility. Each solution is sized to the site, with the goal of lowering energy costs, modernizing infrastructure, and keeping capital where it belongs.
Skilled Nursing Facilities
Clinical spaces, medication refrigeration, kitchens, laundry, and round-the-clock heating, cooling, and hot water create the continuous load profile that makes CHP and onsite generation pay.
- CHP repower of an existing plant, or a new install where gas service and thermal demand support it
- Retail electricity and gas supply structured around the 24/7 base load
- Connected Microgrid® for ventilation, refrigeration, and life safety loads during outages
Assisted Living & Memory Care
Resident comfort depends on stable temperatures and reliable hot water at every hour. Predictable demand supports onsite generation, and consistent temperature control matters most in memory care units.
- Retail supply as the first step, with pricing built around the community’s consumption history
- CHP where the building’s heat and hot water demand supports it year-round
- Upgrades to aging boilers and hot water plant with no capital request
Continuing Care Campuses & Portfolios
Multi-building campuses with central plants, and owners with several properties, get a facility-by-facility evaluation and a portfolio view of procurement, infrastructure, and cost.
- Portfolio procurement across sites and utility territories
- Central plant CHP sized to the campus base load
- Phased infrastructure upgrades sequenced around care operations
Repowered CHP For A Skilled Nursing And Assisted Living Campus
A senior care campus in Kings Park, New York, founded in 1866, serves more than 350 people a day across a 250-bed skilled nursing facility and a 100-bed assisted living community. Its onsite energy infrastructure was aging, and its capital was already committed to resident care.
Catalyst repowered two 75 kW CHP units, integrated a supporting radiator system, and routed recovered heat to space heating and domestic hot water, all under a long-term Energy Services Agreement with no upfront capital from the operator.
“Catalyst Power understood what we needed from day one. They helped us put new energy infrastructure in place that supports our facility for the long term, without requiring upfront capital or disrupting our operations.”CEO, Nursing Center, Kings Park, NY
Senior Living Energy Management, Answered
Start with the two largest line items: what you pay for supply, and how efficiently the building turns fuel into heat and power. Procurement structured around your actual load stabilizes the supply side. Onsite CHP raises efficiency from roughly 50% for grid power plus a boiler to up to 90%, because the heat that would be wasted goes into space heating and hot water. Neither changes the environment residents live in. Both change what it costs to maintain it.
Usually, yes. The best candidates run long hours, carry a steady electrical base load, need heat and hot water year-round, and have a natural gas connection. A typical 50 to 100 kW system needs about 200 square feet of mechanical space. Catalyst’s candidate checklist covers the full list.
Catalyst designs, finances, installs, owns, and operates the system under a long-term Energy Services Agreement. You buy the electricity and heat it produces at an agreed rate. Maintenance, monitoring, and repairs stay with Catalyst. Nothing lands on your balance sheet as a capital project.
CHP paired with Catalyst’s Connected Microgrid® can support key functions such as ventilation, medication refrigeration, and life safety systems during an interruption. Whether that configuration is right for your facility depends on its critical loads, which is part of the initial evaluation.
No. The utility remains responsible for the lines, poles, and meters. Catalyst supplies the energy and, where applicable, the onsite system. Retail supply customers receive one supply bill per cycle. Onsite generation customers receive a separate bill for the system’s output.
Catalyst’s Connected Microgrid installations typically take 6 to 12 months from agreement signing to an operating system. CHP timelines depend on site conditions, gas service, and the existing plant. The initial evaluation sets the schedule for your facility.
Catalyst Power is an independent energy solutions provider and retail supplier based in New York. Nursing homes, assisted living communities, and continuing care campuses across the Northeast are modernizing energy infrastructure with Catalyst at no upfront cost.
Go Deeper
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Are You A Good Candidate For Cogeneration?
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Modernizing Energy At A Senior Living Campus In Kings Park, NY
See What An Integrated Energy Strategy Could Do For Your Facility
A short conversation covers your facility’s energy profile, existing infrastructure, and where the opportunity to reduce cost is. No commitment, no capital.
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