LEWISBURG — State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township, and state Rep. Lynda Culver, R-Northumberland/Snyder, recently toured Evangelical Community Hospital’s plant facility to learn about and see for themselves some of the hospital’s work toward becoming more energy efficient, according to a press release.

Hospital staff explained the new 750-ton magnetic bearing chiller, a higher quality, more efficient chiller that will increase capacity, provide redundancy and provide chilled water to the hospital under emergency power.

The visit comes after both Yaw and Culver vigorously supported state funding through two separate grants totaling $900,000 for Evangelical’s effort to increase its energy efficiency, the release said.

Both grants, which are products of the state Office of the Budget’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), are in the process of being fulfilled to fully receive the promised funds.

The grant expands the hospital’s $1.9 million Efficiency Initiative, a project aimed at reducing the main campus’s energy consumption by more than 394,000 kWh annually and allow for efficient cooling of the Patient Room Improvement, Modernization and Enhancement (PRIME) project, according to the press release.