SA Water’s Zero Cost Energy Future
In the circular water economy, the facilities and infrastructure of water and wastewater treatment facilities provide opportunities to generate renewable energy. Water utilities can implement traditional renewable energy activities on facility-owned buildings and surrounding land, including solar radiation captured at facilities, floating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, wind power captured at facilities, and energy recovery from hydropower.
SA Water’s Zero Cost Energy Future
SA Water is responsible for providing water services to more than 1.7 million customers across the state of South Australia. The utility manages more than 27,000km of water mains, including 9,266 km in the Adelaide metropolitan area. With a large service region, SA Water’s electricity bill was over $80 million for the 18/19 financial year, making it one of the state’s largest electricity users. In response, the utility has initiated its Zero Cost Energy Future programme that will see the energy they generate and export to the market off-set the cost of the electricity they draw from the grid to achieve a zero-net outcome. There are seven initiatives as part of the Zero Cost Energy Future programme, including a ground-mounted solar PV and Energy Storage piece. In total, the programme will involve the installation of 242GWh of solar generation and 35MWh of storage across a number of SA Water’s sites around both metropolitan and regional South Australia. Overall, by reducing operational expenses, including electricity, SA Water will be able to keep water service charges as low and stable as possible for their customers.
The take-out
Water utilities can implement renewable energy systems to lower costs and keep water bills down.
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