Water and wastewater plants join Energy Star to cut electricity costs
U.S. drinking water and wastewater plants are joining a new EPA
initiative to increase their energy efficiency and reduce
municipalities' electric bills. Over the next year, with participation
by more than 20 organizations, the new Energy Star Industrial Water and
Wastewater Focus will develop an energy performance rating system, a
guide to assessing energy efficiency opportunities, strategies for
superior energy management and innovative approaches to financing
energy efficiency projects. This new Energy Star program for water
systems is part of a series of efforts to improve the energy efficiency
of selected industries.
Drinking water and wastewater systems spend about $4 billion a year on
energy to pump, treat, deliver, collect and clean water -- with much of
this cost borne by ratepayers and municipalities. The energy costs to
run drinking water and wastewater systems can represent as much as
one-third of a municipality's energy bill. If drinking water and
wastewater systems reduce energy use by just 10 percent through
cost-effective investments in energy efficiency, collectively they would
save about $400 million and 5 billion kWh annually, according to EPA
Currently, the Energy Star Water and Wastewater Focus includes the
American Council for An Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), Association of
Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), Alliance to Save Energy (ASE),
National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), Awwa Research
Foundation, California Energy Commission (CEC), Consortium for Energy
Efficiency (CEE), Columbus (GA) Water Works, Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Los
Angeles - Bureau of Sanitation, Metropolitan Council Environmental
Services, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
(NARUC), National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), New York State
Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Oakridge National
Laboratory (ORNL), Public Technology Institute (PTI), Water Environment
Federation (WEF), Wisconsin Focus on Energy, Washington Suburban
Sanitary Commission (WSSC) and WateReuse Association.
EPA, through Energy Star, develops focuses for sectors that consume
large amounts of energy, produce significant carbon emissions, have
large costs associated with energy use, and would benefit from tools and
resources to improve energy efficiency. EPA currently has an Energy
Star Industrial Focus for the corn-refining, beer-brewing, automobile
assembly and cement industries.
Information on Energy Star's Industrial Focus is available at
http://energystar.gov/ia/business/government/wastewater_fs.pdf, and
additional information about Energy Star is available at
http://www.energystar.gov.
This article originally appeared in the 05/01/2005 issue of Environmental Protection.