Water Reuse May Solve Supply Problems

As water becomes increasingly scarce in the future, treatment systems for water reuse, desalination and brackish waters may provide alternative water supplies, but only if they become cost effective. In many cases, energy efficiency is the key to bringing costs down, according to Wendell Bakken, an official with the California Energy Commission.

Bakken presented the keynote address during opening ceremonies of the second annual Energy Efficiency Forum for the Water & Wastewater Treatment Industry. More than 100 water and wastewater industry professionals attended the forum, which was held recently in San Diego, Calif. The event was sponsored by WaterWorld Magazine, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Department of Energy Motor Challenge Program.

Key topics of the forum included reducing energy costs associated with pumping and motor systems, aeration and mixing, and disinfection systems. Important changes in the electric power industry and how those changes might impact the way municipalities buy power for their water systems also was an important topic.

The connection between power and water will become increasingly important over the next few years as utilities work to streamline their operations and water resources shrink, Bakken said. The California Energy Commission is working with a number of water utilities on energy management issues and has developed a list of successful case studies highlighting the savings utilities can achieve through conservation programs. The studies may be viewed at the Commission?s website, http://www.energy.ca.gov/water/.

Southern California is struggling with how to best supply drinking water to its rapidly growing population. While water traditionally has been pumped from northern California or other regions, those options will not satisfy the expected growth coming in the next few years, Bakken said.

Other alternatives include treatment of brackish groundwater, municipal water reuse or recycling agricultural water. Treatment technologies are available but they include a high energy cost. Bakken noted, however, that studies have shown when comparing the cost of pumping water in from other regions, on-site treatment of difficult waters is actually more cost effective in the long run.

Corporate sponsor Powerware Solutions was among several exhibitors at the forum. Powerware provides software and services that help water utilities manage their relationship with power suppliers.

?As can be seen in any competitive industry, coordination between sellers and buyers results in efficiency improvements on both sides of the transaction, enhancing the competitive position of both buyer and seller,? said Richard Jamieson, president of Powerware Solutions.

Deregulation of electric utilities already has occurred in California, several New England states, Oklahoma and Montana, and eventually will be nationwide. Deregulation is expected to accelerate the movement toward time-based rates, a trend that eventually will result in real-time rates that change constantly like other commodity prices, according to speaker James Rogers, PE, with Energy Consulting of Chelmsford, Mass.

Those rate changes will put more value on load management and technologies that can shift electric consumption to periods when it is much cheaper and away from times when it is expensive.

While pooling electric demand with other organizations has been touted as an attractive option for organizations seeking reduced rates, aggregation actually can hurt water/wastewater facilities, Rogers said. Water utilities have attractive load profiles and often can shift some of their energy intensive operations into not-peak periods. If their bills are aggregated with other municipal operations, they could end up subsidizing those with less attractive load profiles, including schools and office buildings which consume all their power during peak periods, he said.

Papers also were presented on new advances in dissolved oxygen monitoring and control systems, conducting an energy audit, on-site generation of power using biogas, and implementation of a motor management policy. Attendees also had the chance to take a behind-the-scenes technical tour of SeaWorld, and visit San Diego?s new state-of-the-art Metropolitan Biosolids Center, which generates its own power using digester gas and methane generated by the nearby Miramar landfill.

The next Energy Efficiency Forum for the Water & Wastewater Industry is tentatively planned for Baltimore, Md., in late August 2000. For more information, contact Laura Boland, Conference Coordinator, at 918-831-9179.