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Water Treatment Plants Energy Saving Tips
5 ENERGY SAVING
TIPS FOR WATER TREATMENT PLANTS
Kurt Desmond
In today’s world, where the public and
private sectors are trying to save money, trim their budgets and become more
efficient, one area that is being focused on is energy.
And there are many ways to save on energy,
particularly if you are a wastewater treatment facility.
The processing of wastewater and the systems
required at the local municipalities is both a costly and a labour-intensive
process.
A significant amount of energy is required
for running this operation.
All over Canada and elsewhere around the
world, there are thousands of drinking water systems that work 24 hours a day,
seven days a week in order to ensure that Canadians have clean drinking water.
Despite the complexity of these motor driven
mechanical systems, one can develop a wide array of strategies to save energy.
Everything from lighting to automation,
wastewater treatment plants have utilized a wide array of systems and protocols
to ensure they’re slashing their energy costs.
Here are the top five energy-saving tips for
wastewater treatment plants:
1. Have a Robust Energy Monitoring System
The first step to saving energy is to have a
robust energy monitoring system.
Today, there are several types of low cost
wireless sub-meter devices that can help these facilities collect data on
consumption and usage.
The data can then be analyzed by the
available software and reproduced either in terms of a bar chart or linear graphics.
This can immediately provide peak usage times
and areas of energy waste.
Recent studies from other industrial
facilities indicate that many wastewater plants have the potential to save
anywhere from five to 20 percent of their total energy consumption by
installing energy monitoring system and by training their employees on how to
interpret the collected data.
2. Heed the Manufacturer’s Guidelines
Unfortunately, some wastewater plants
initially install the equipment to process water according to the
manufacturer’s guidelines but then deviate in the operations.
To get the maximum benefit, it is highly
recommended that the facility is commissioned according to the operational
needs.
All the heavy motor and rotor pumps gradually
lose calibration over time and hence to ensure optimal performance they should
be maintained and decommissioned every three to five years.
To ensure the best optimal performance
possible, there may be a need to install permanent monitoring systems that can
provide dynamic diagnosis and predict problems in the system before the
performance begins to degrade, which will create other headaches in the plants.
3. Is There an Alternative Aeration
System?
Experts indicate that wastewater plants can
obtain significant savings by installing alternative aeration systems.
Use of turbo blowers have been shown to be of
low cost and high efficiency; and vastly superior to the traditional blowers
used in wastewater plants that have very low efficiency.
The latest single stage high-speed turbo
blowers are highly efficient and are relatively easy to install and operate.
The newer devices can lower the total energy
consumption by around 10 to 15 percent, and they all come with utility rebates.
4. Install VFDs Almost Immediately
There are some pumps that are an energy sink
at wastewater plants, but the installation of variable frequency drives, or
VFDs, is a great option to consider.
The VFDs can be retrofitted and can
significantly lower energy consumptions yet operate very effectively.
By having more control over speed, this
results in higher energy efficiency.
Moreover, VFDs are also known to process with
precision and improve the power as well as eliminate any throttling mechanisms
that occur at outlet dampers and control valves.
5. Switch to LEDs is a Great Idea
Finally, one of the ways to save on energy at
wastewater treatment plants is to upgrade outdoor lighting fixtures to LEDs, which
are known to be effective, easier to control and markedly reduce energy
consumption.
The other benefits of LEDs include uniform
light distribution, less light pollution and longer durability of the bulbs.
Contributor
@ Outlook Magazine
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