Energy Management In Allwater: 5 Years On - Watts Worked?

Allwater (a joint venture between Broadspectrum and Suez) operate and maintain the Adelaide Metropolitan Water and Wastewater Supply Systems through the Adelaide Services Alliance. Allwater serves approximately 1.3 million people where energy usage (approximately 93,000 MWh in 2017/18) and greenhouse gas emissions (approximately 69,000 Tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2017/18) are significant.

The majority of Allwater’s energy consumption is from key processes including:

– Treating raw source water to a drinking water standard;

– Pumping drinking water through the distribution supply network;

– Pumping wastewater (where required) through the sewer network; and

– Treating wastewater to a standard appropriate for discharge to receiving waters or for reuse.

In 2013 Allwater commenced the journey to develop an ISO 50001 certified Energy Management Program to better meet its sustainability responsibilities through reducing electricity consumption, maximising power generation (electricity from biogas), and in turn reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, energy management was identified as a key area that can demonstrate both business and operational efficiency to the customer.

The first step in developing the Energy Management Program was to understand the power usage across the business to enable identification of opportunities for improvement. Training and awareness initiatives were developed and delivered which empowered personnel to manage energy effectively. Accompanying this was the development of a process for all staff within Allwater to submit energy efficiency ideas leading to many innovative solutions across all areas of the business.

Since the commencement of the program, large savings in energy have been achieved without compromising service to the customer. The process is ongoing and further work is being undertaken to provide smarter tools to dynamically manage our electricity usage and energy production in the context of electricity being purchased on the spot market by our Alliance partner, SA Water.

This paper outlines Allwater’s Energy Management journey over the past five years and the lessons learnt, together with details of some of the innovative ideas implemented throughout the business which have led to significant energy savings.