The city of Warren, Mich., has announced a series of energy-efficient improvements in 30 buildings at the Warren Wastewater Treatment Plant. These improvements are expected to save the city more than $11 million in energy and operational costs over 15 years.
The self-funding program calls for Johnson Controls to upgrade the plant's aging infrastructure while providing other improvements and training for staff. The program is funded by a performance-based contract, which uses a portion of the energy savings expected to result from the capital improvements to pay for the project itself. It will allow Warren to reduce utility costs and its carbon footprint without increasing utility rates.
Mayor James R. Fouts, with unanimous support of the city council, recommended the comprehensive program that will use primarily local suppliers to implement the advanced technologies. The improvements will include:
• Installation of a 10-kilowatt solar array at the administration services building to provide a renewable energy source to offset the facility’s power consumption;
• Reprogramming of the plant’s current SCADA system to enable more accurate energy usage monitoring;
• Installation of new aeration blowers, controls and power monitoring to greatly reduce energy usage across the plant; and
• Implementation of a new biological phosphorus removal process to reduce or eliminate the highly-corrosive and acidic chemical, ferric chloride, which is currently used to treat phosphorus.
“This energy program will not only reduce our city’s overall energy costs, it will also keep jobs in Warren, provide advanced wastewater treatment for the community and help us reach our environmental goals,” Fouts said. “Protecting the environment for our residents without impacting their wastewater treatment rates is a top priority for the city.”
The upgrades are expected to be complete in the spring of 2013.
Source: Johnson Controls; Warren Wastewater Treatment Plant
