Ten Years and Counting in the Wastewater Process Energy Efficiency Industry: Northern California's CalPOP Program

An energy efficiency industry operating programs within the water and wastewater sector can speed the reduction of energy consumption. We examine the experience to date of a utility sponsored Northern California wastewater energy efficiency program started in 2001. This program, called California Wastewater Process Optimization Program, or CalPOP, has been quite successful, and generated a wealth of experience and lessons learned. The primary objective of CalPOP is finding and implementing Energy Efficiency (EE) capital improvements that significantly reduce electricity or natural gas demands. CalPOP has found many unique EE measures in wastewater processing. Some, such as optimizing pumps and blowers, yield significant, reliable energy savings when properly evaluated and implemented. Other methods of saving energy, particularly those with less of a track record, are riskier and do not always perform as predicted. Non-technical factors have been critical to the success of the program, in the form of addressing organizational barriers and drivers that impact the probability of implementation. To date, the great majority of EE measures proposed by CalPOP have been, or are expected to be, implemented. CalPOP has been deemed a success by the objective standards used to measure California EE programs. The lessons learned are presented within a strategy of risk management.