Energy efficiency is critical to achieving net zero. Not only can it help deliver cost efficiencies, but it can help to offset the increase in energy consumption arising from the demands of population growth on our services. We have several initiatives underway across our water and wastewater production lines as part of our Energy Reduce Use Programme.
We have developed a fully automated energy platform (ISO 50001 certified), optimised pumps across several of our sites, implemented source optimisation, optimised energy usage of odour control fans at a number of our Wastewater Treatment Works and progressed energy efficient LED lighting. These initiatives are helping us to reduce our consumption, use more sustainable sources of energy and deliver cost efficiencies.
Pump Optimisation
In PC21 to date, 17 sites have been progressed for pump optimisation work, investing c.£5.8m delivering 5.4m kilowatt hours (kWh) of annual benefits. Ballygomartin Water Pumping Station is one of the sites where two efficient pumps were installed, replacing previous pumps, which resulted in c.30-35% like for like energy reduction. With every best in class energy efficient pump that we install, we are reducing the kWh per megalitre (Ml) required to deliver water to our customers i.e. delivering water more efficiently. This is contributing to our sustainability goals whilst resilience and customer supplies are protected.
Ballygomartin ‘pumping’ out energy savings for NI Water
Optimising Water Supply
Water supply in Northern Ireland is organised in Water Resource Zones (WRZ) which has interconnectivity of the supply system. We have developed (in-house) a suite of analytics, dashboards and Business Protocols that optimise a number of these zones. The suite of dashboards provide insight into the production costs and energy usage associated with the delivery of the treated water from the most cost-effective Water Treatment Works/source, with minimal risk. This is known as Source Optimisation and the aim is to substantially reduce our energy utilising these insights.
Within NI Water, a Water Resource Zone (WRZ) is an area that is largely self-contained and will be able to abstract, treat and move potable drinking water around to serve the population within it.
Water abstraction from low lying sources such as Loughs and rivers are more expensive and energy intensive in comparison to using raw water from our Upland Sources known as Impounding Reservoir (IRs). These can usually be mainly gravity fed into the Water Treatment Works. Examples of well-known upland sources are Ben Crom, Silent Valley, Altnaheglish and the Woodburn Impounding Reservoirs.
Reducing Energy Usage Using Analytics
Within our Water Production Lines (WPL), the main energy using assets used within these activities are 24 Water Treatment Works, and over 350 Pumping Stations in a network of 27,000 km of water mains and Service Reservoirs.
In total we have over 580 assets within our Water Production Lines (WPL) connected to an electricity supply and our aim is to optimise the lower consuming assets versus the higher consuming. With better business analytics and computing power, NI Water has been able to harness our data providing a better understanding on production costs associated with producing and movement/supply of water within the Water Resource Zones to help reduce energy usage.
Analytics insights driving smart investment to combat climate change
While much of Northern Ireland’s water supply is captured on higher ground through Impounding Reservoirs, a significant proportion is drawn from lower lying loughs and rivers. This water often requires more treatment and pumping which can be energy intensive and expensive.
NI Water has also been adapting new technology to assist with the impact of climate change on the supply of drinking water. More extremes in weather including drier, warmer periods and the recent cold winter have added stress to our water supplies. With this trend set to continue, we have been planning ahead to ensure the future security of the water supply.
In Moneymore, the use of new technology has successfully enabled sustainable ground water to be sourced, not only to improve the resilience of supply for over 2,000 customers, but to lower carbon emissions and energy costs. The resilience investment also permits the Water Resource Zone within this region (known as the Central WRZ) to be optimised, maximizing the cheaper less energy intensive water sources such as Moneymore and Lough Fea as opposed to abstracting, treating and distributing a proportion of the water from Lough Neagh.