Compare the energy use and financial performance of your facilities with other peer facilities using standardized, free tools.
Best Practice of this action
Rating Guideline
 |
Calculate your waste water plant's benchmark by dividing average daily energy use by typical flow in MGD (millions of gallons per day); report energy use for drinking water produced and delivered in kWh per 1,000 gallons (typically between 0.25 to 3.5 kWh). Report water system losses under BPA 20.3; report protection efforts that sustain facility function during extreme weather under BPA 29.7. |
 |
Use B3, Portfolio Manager or the like to report several years of historic data; note how your water and wastewater facilities compare to similar plants; report awards for plant excellence. |
 |
Report that the Sewer, and Drinking Water, Enterprise funds (using data from https://www.auditor.state.mn.us/maps ) have had 5+ years Positive Net Income; rank in the best 25% of Upper Midwest peer facilities. |
Resources
- The Minnesota Buildings, Benchmarks and Beyond (B3) database automatically records DMR data the city submits to the MPCA and places it on the city's B3 web page. B3 then allows cities to routinely enter and track energy use at wastewater treatment plants and receive an official (or unofficial for flows under .6 MG/D) Energy Star Portfolio Manager score from 1-100 that compares the performance of your plant to those nationwide. B3 can also be used to track lift station and drinking water data. Note that in the Twin Cities the Met Council offers cities a customer portal for viewing metered wastewater flow data and I/I program-related information.
- The U.S. EPA's Check Up Program for Small Systems is a free, easy-to-use asset management tool for small drinking water and wastewater utilities.
- See the SB 2030 Wastewater Treatment Plant Review Process and EPA's Energy Efficiency for Water Utilities.
- Contact the free POTW experts at the MN Technical Assistance Program for audit and other types of assistance.
- The MN Auditor's Infrastructure Stress Transparency Tool reports 5 years of data on the sewer and drinking water fiscal performance of city enterprise funds for sewer and water plants. Additional information also available.
- For facilities paying a demand charge for electricity, installing power factor correction equipment and/or storing methane from anaerobic digestion to generate peaking power will yield cost-savings due to lower energy demand charges.
- Ductile iron pipe for drinking water mains has stronger walls, allowing a larger inside diameter, reducing friction and thus saving energy. According to St. Cloud’s Pumping Cost Study (July 2014), the city's use of ductile iron pipe (certified under the SMaRT standard ) results in an annual savings of $210,530 compared to competing pipe, measuring power cost, pump efficiency, and head loss.
- See an award-winning strategy employed by Madelia in 2014 for reuse of bio-solid storage lagoons and 7 2018 case studies of low-cost, no-cost energy efficiency opportunities that were implemented that reduced WWTP energy use between 5-30% and saved each plant an average of $13,000 in annual energy costs.
Order Number
1