Wastewater Treatment Facility Energy Efficiency and Fossil Fuel Energy Independence

The Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC) owns and operates the two largest wastewater treatment facilities (WWTF) in the State of Rhode Island: the Bucklin Point (BP) WWTF located in East Providence and the Field’s Point (FP) WWTF located in Providence. The NBC collects and treats wastewater and stormwater from 10 Rhode Island cities and towns, servicing 40% of the state’s population.Wastewater treatment operations are highly energy intensive and as energy costs continue to rise, particularly in the Northeastern U.S. where electricity prices are between 30 to 40 % higher than the national average, sustainable energy management is becoming an increasingly more critical operational issue. NBC’s FP WWTF, the largest in the State of Rhode Island and the second largest in New England, has a peak electrical power demand of 2.0 Megawatts and NBC’s BP WWTF, the second largest WWTF in Rhode Island, has a peak electrical power demand of 1.5 Megawatts.In an effort to improve its energy use performance and to help establish a sustainable energy management plan for the future, the NBC secured a $35,000 EPA grant in October 2005 to conduct investigations into the potential use of available renewable energy resources at both the FP WWTF and BP WWTF. Based on the results of these preliminary investigations NBC applied for and received a $50,000 grant in March 2006 from the then Rhode Island Energy Office to initiate detailed studies into the technical and economic feasibility of using wind power at the FP WWTF and a biogas fueled Combined Heat and Power system at the BP WWTF.As a direct result of these initial studies NBC began operating three 1.5 MW wind turbine at its FP WWTF in December 2012 and in 2016, utilizing newly enacted net metering legislation, NBC purchased three additional 1.5 MW wind turbines located remotely from NBC’s facilities. Combined these wind turbines are capable of supplying almost 48% of NBC’s electricity needs. Based on the success of these projects NBC is moving forward with the Biogas Combined Heat and Power Project at the BP WWTF and is in the processes of entering into a 25 year solar energy Power Purchase Agreement that combined with the wind and biogas projects will supply 100 % of NBC’s total electrical energy needs through local renewable energy resources.