News

A year on from the start of work in March 2025 the foundation works for Kettering General Hospital’s £57m new Energy Centre are progressing at pace.

Mechanical diggers are currently excavating at the site – near the Treatment Centre opposite the Rothwell Road railway bridge – to lay pipework to accept new electrical cabling for the site.

The essential development will replace all the hospital’s 50-year-old electrical infrastructure and also its rented temporary boilers which are currently the hospital’s only source of heat and hot water - and which can cause interruptions to service requiring essential maintenance and repair.

When it is complete in Autumn 2027 the new Energy Centre will renew and boost the hospital’s electricity supply and provide a state-of-the-art power and pumping plant to ensure patients, visitors, and staff, continue to get reliable hot water, power, and heating for the foreseeable future.

It will provide:

•  A New Energy Centre  to include air source heat pumps​, circulation pumps​ and backup generators​
• Heating - New heating feeds into hospital blocks around the site along with new air handling units providing ventilation and modifications to existing units​ and plant rooms
• Electricity  - New incoming high voltage cables from Field Street​ include new transformers​, a ring main around the site, a new substation on site and connection to existing substations

Once the centre is built the hospital will then run the new systems in parallel with the old systems until we are confident that everything is working well with a plan to switch off the old systems by late 2027.

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire’s Director of Strategy Polly Grimmett said: “Work on our new Energy Centre continues to progress at pace and we are currently excavating trenching and laying pipe work to accept the new electrical cabling around the site and starting on the steel frame of the building.

“The scheme is on schedule to complete in late 2027. Over the summer a number of off-site works will take place including bringing of the main power supply from the middle of Kettering to the hospital site.

“This will require works along Rothwell Road and hence one carriage way will be closed for a number of weeks, mainly during the school summer holidays to help reduce the impact on traffic flow. We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause but clearly it is vitally important that the hospital ensures it has appropriate electricity and heating for the future.

Other enabling works for the rebuild are also underway. At the bottom of Rothwell Road near the railway bridge works have begun to clear some land ready for our new Multi-Storey Car Park. These plans have also received planning permission from North Northants Council. The aim is to start this build later in Summer 2026 with construction lasting approximately  16 months. This facility will provide 650 spaces, EV charging points, cycle parking and change facilities, and significantly improve the experience and ease with which our patients and visitors can access the site.

Polly added: “Both of these projects are key enabling works for the proposed rebuild of the hospital itself, currently planned to begin from 2032-34 as part of phase two of the national New Hospital Programme. Subject to national support and funding availability we remain confident we could begin earlier than this date as our plans are well progressed.

“We continue to work closely with the national New Hospital Programme on all our current works and future plans.”