Boston, MA, Oct. 20, 2011 -- SourceOne, an energy management and consulting services subsidiary of Veolia Energy North America, has completed a major project with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) to improve the efficiency and overall performance of the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The Deer Island plant is considered the centerpiece of MWRA’s $3.8 billion program to protect Boston Harbor against pollution from Metropolitan Boston’s sewer systems.
“As a large energy consumer, MWRA’s Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant is a perfect candidate to identify and implement cost-effective solutions to drive efficiency and increase performance,” said Vincent Martin, President of SourceOne. “The MWRA has fully embraced sustainability and energy efficiency by implementing energy savings measures as well as Distributed Generation projects. Deer Island uses several DG technologies and is a great example of how our technology can help meet customer needs.”
The Deer Island energy-efficient infrastructure upgrades include:
-- A waste-to-energy boiler plant that uses methane from the wastewater treatment process to generate steam for space heating and treatment process requirements.
-- One 18,000 kW back pressure steam turbine generator (BPSTG).
-- Two 600 kW and one 100 kW wind turbine generators.
-- Two 1,000 kW hydro turbine generators.
-- 700+ kW photovoltaic paneling on facility rooftops.
In addition to its existing upgrades, MWRA identified an opportunity to improve efficiency by modifying the existing BPSTG (back pressure steam turbine generator) to a condensing unit, yielding more power for each pound of steam generated. However, this solution required delivery of steam to the plant for its use and to supply a heat loop.
SourceOne worked with the MWRA to install a new 1.1 MW BPSTG that would exhaust at 15 psig and serve the plant and the heat loop, while generating additional power.
SourceOne focused on developing a conceptual design to integrate this additional power source and select a Design Build firm to complete the design, install the additional equipment, and commission the equipment for MWRA’s use.
The installation of this new generator will enable the MWRA to take advantage of excess heat produced in the summer, as well as enabling other process efficiency improvements. In addition to making the larger generating unit more efficient, it will generate additional power from the waste heat that can be used productively as “free” energy for the facility.
The MWRA’s Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant treats an average of 350 million gallons of wastewater each day from 43 communities in greater Boston and is one of the largest electricity users in the Northeast. By maximizing energy efficiency and deploying renewable sources, such as using methane from the plant’s bio-digesters to produce power, Deer Island currently self-generates 22 percent of its electricity needs and it will increase that number to 25 percent in 2012.
