Microgeneration - A Timely Option for Water Utilities

June 1, 2002
What happens if your power goes off? What happens to your control systems, your treatment processes, and your distribution system? What safety risks occur - to your employees, your equipment, and your customers?

By Thomas A. Kerestes

What happens if your power goes off? What happens to your control systems, your treatment processes, and your distribution system? What safety risks occur - to your employees, your equipment, and your customers?

  • Problem: Many electric utility providers are struggling to maintain a reliable supply of energy to their water utility customers due to aging infrastructure, increased pressure to contain capital investment, and increased generation cost. Without electricity, water treatment plants just don't operate!
  • Solution: A well-designed onsite microgeneration system can assure that a water utility has all the electric power it needs, when it needs it, regardless of electric supply reliability, power quality, or price fluctuations.

Outages are occurring more frequently at electric utilities, some have cascaded, as in the Northwestern US, resulting in large regions suffering blackouts. This is the result of insufficient generation capacity and an overtaxed, aging transmission grid.

The Edison Electric Institute reported (June 2001) that electric utilities have invested 50 percent less in their infrastructure in the past decade than in the previous decade - with growth remaining the same. It's likely that even more outages will occur - and more frequently. Changing regulation, areas of ineffective deregulation, and, more recently, legislated re-regulation, coupled with the Enron collapse, have created significant and unpredictable fluctuations in electric costs, and only recently has the market started to re-stabilize.

And finally, electric utilities are routinely put on alert as likely terrorist targets. How can they possibly defend such an expansive, highly exposed conglomeration of assets? Terrorist mitigation efforts are underway, but are years away from adequate protection plans and procedures. Even then, they will be implemented in an industry that is in turmoil.

The bottom line: there is enormous potential for service disruptions that will affect virtually every aspect of our lives and businesses at a moment's notice. And shut down your water treatment facility. That's why every water utility needs to consider microgeneration at a level appropriate to their needs and circumstances.

Microgeneration is the only way to surmount all these obstacles, with the additional benefit of generating revenue - even as utilities save on costs and assure a dependable energy source.

Defining Microgeneration

Microgeneration is essentially your own mini-power plant, known by various names:
•backup or emergency generation
•co-generation

"Qualified Facility" as defined under PURPA (Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act) rules:
•distributed generation
•customer-owned generation

Microgeneration systems could consist of natural gas or diesel reciprocating engine generators (be aware of environmental pollution regulations), microturbines, fuel cells (now being perfected), or renewable energy sources such as hydro-generation, solar voltaic, or wind turbines (the last two are not reliable for emergency use.) Careful planning will help utilities select the right equipment, with the right capacity for their needs.

And, don't neglect to explore a "partnering" agreement with your local electric utility. You can provide value to them in different ways. For instance, you have probably already shifted your load to off-peak time periods. Electric utilities usually provide a better rate if you can reduce or shift load. With microgeneration, you can also save money by generating your own energy during "peak" periods, containing your monthly peak demand charges.

Additionally, if you have excess or unused generation capacity, consider selling this excess energy back to the electric utility, or allowing your system to be used by the electric utility during peak periods.

It's a new way of thinking - rather than being a power utility "customer", become their "partner." In the process, you'll be ensuring your utility of a reliable source of energy.

From California to New York, water utilities are installing microgeneration systems to protect themselves against outages, while saving on their energy costs.

Finally, you save in terms of what it will cost you to shut down and re-start your water treatment facility. Costs in terms of sanitizing the facility and restarting the treatment process, the costs of labor and lost revenue, can all go a long way toward paying for your backup power supply. And, when a power outage does occur, your customers will be pleased and impressed that you're able to continue supplying their drinking water uninterrupted.

Energy Strategy

You can take control of your energy strategy! The steps are straightforward:

  • understand your electric demand at your facility over time
  • understand your energy supplier - what do they need from you as their partner
  • study your microgeneration options - look at what others are doing, and consider what would work best for your unique situation
  • document your energy strategy and your business case
  • implement your microgeneration energy security plan.

Microgeneration is an option to consider when creating your next operating plan. The time is right, in most cases the technology is available, and the need is ever-present.

About the Author:

Thomas A. Kerestes, P.E., is a Principal Consultant on Electric and Gas Utility Services at EMA, Inc.

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