Article of Interest
Rising Energy Costs Drive Utilities to Reduce Energy Consumption
Rising energy costs… increased concern over climate change… emerging focus on “carbon footprint” and sustainability… and increasing pressure on utilities to accomplish more for less… make energy management a wise business decision today.
Water and wastewater utilities are very energy intensive. EPA estimates that municipal water and wastewater facilities consume 3% of the total U.S. consumption of electricity, which is more than the energy intensive pulp/paper and petroleum industries combined. Energy cost is the second largest component of water and wastewater facilities operations and maintenance budgets, typically ranging from 25 to 40% of the total O&M budget. Most water and wastewater facilities were built in an era when power was less expensive and were not optimized for energy consumption. Today, with many advances in technology and process knowledge, there are tremendous opportunities to reduce energy consumption. Furthermore, there are numerous alternative energy options to consider including wind, solar, geothermal, heat recovery systems, biogas (heat and power generation) and fuel cells.
How to begin reducing energy use?
One of the easiest ways to assess the potential for efficiency gains is to benchmark your facility against the EPA’s database. Next, you must understand where your energy is being consumed and what opportunities exist for conservation by conducting an energy audit. Energy audits will identify opportunities to use less energy, such as use of high efficiency equipment, process enhancements, and operational changes. With an energy audit you can develop a prioritized list of efficiency enhancement alternatives based on a simple payback analysis.
Financing and implementation
There are a number of ways to finance and implement efficiency improvements. Often the payback period is quite short.
- financing from operational savings
- grant and loan programs
- power company incentive programs
- performance contractors who will provide the capital for improvements with payment from the savings
Wright-Pierce provides energy management services to facilities throughout New England. We offer assistance benchmarking your energy usage, completing energy audits, and consulting on the various grants and power company
incentives.