Leveraging the Energy of the Group to Manage the Energy of the Utility: The NWWBI Adopts Industry Tools to Improve Energy Performance

Benchmarking wastewater treatment energy consumption is increasingly valuable in this time of change; the drive to reduce GHG emissions, changes in energy rates and rate structures, and the validation of new technologies are all having an impact on energy consumption trends. Single parameter energy metric benchmarking has been part of the National Water and Wastewater Benchmarking Initiative (NWWBI) since the program's inception in 1997. As an alternative to the conventional single parameter metrics, the WRF Energy Index was piloted for the Canadian municipalities during the 2012 NWWBI iteration. The results of the Energy Index pilot are presented in this paper.