Water & Wastewater Treatment

20 | august 2014 | WWt | www.wwtonline.co.uk the dashboards can be indi- vidually configured to show energy data pertinent to the user's job role Project focus: Wessex Water Energy Hub formance of the site throughout the day. By enabling access to good qual- ity data the dashboards will enable the operations team to identify items of plant, systems and even entire sites where intervention could improve performance and reduce operational energy use and, hence, costs. What's more, the quality of data on the sys- tem enables operators to demonstrate the level of savings achieved through their interventions. The roll-out of the dashboards is the most recent element in the de- velopment of Wessex Water's Energy Hub. "As the number of quick-win initiatives diminishes, maintaining asset efficiency and identifying when to take appropriate remedial action will be central to managing energy costs in future years," explains energy programme manager John Leonard. Energy costs derived from billing data are one of the main sources of data for the Energy Hub. However, to a major consumer such as Wessex Wa- ter, the cost of energy varies depend- ing on the time of day and season in which it is consumed and is billed on more than 25 different tariffs. To ensure energy costs are ac- curate, as part of the Energy Hub project Wessex Water's Energy Team has developed their billing so†- ware in-house. This is capable of modelling the complex electric- ity industry billing rules in order to accurately estimate monthly electricity costs and to produce cost forecasts and energy budgets. In total the so†ware processes more than 23 million rows of consumption data and 22,000 electricity bills a year. "As a result of this we are able to model the com- pany's multimillion pound energy bill to an accuracy of 99.9%." says Laura Mann, energy services team leader in the energy accounting team. Electricity tariffs have a huge im- pact on the cost of electricity; two of the most significant are Triad and Dis- tribution Use of System (DUoS). Triad is a charge levied on industrial users by National Grid for the consumption of electricity at peak demand times. It can result in cost increases of up to 700% for using power during the three annual triad periods. In addi- tion, DUoS has three main tariffs: red, amber and green. Industrial consum- ers can pay up to 21 pence more per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed during red tariff period (between 4pm "as the number of quick-win initiatives diminishes, maintaining asset efficiency will be central to managing energy costs in future" John Leonard Energy programme director • In Action Small savings – big wins In April 2014 the Energy Hub highlighted abnor- mal pump activity at a remote Sewage Pumping Station, north-east of Malmesbury, Wiltshire. The run/stop data in the pump telemetry tool showed that rather than the more normal stop/start operation, the pump had been run- ning continuously from 5th to 11th April. The problem was identi- fied as a damaged float switch. Data from the Energy Hub showed that identifying the problem and ensuring it was fixed immediately saved £144 in energy costs on a site where the annual energy cost is approximately £1000 – a significant percentage, which high- lights the importance of looking a er smaller costs in addition to chas- ing big wins. ● Cost of electricity is continuing to increase as global energy prices continue to rise. ● The need to comply with increasingly onerous energy legislation includ- ing CRC and ESOS. ● Need to instil energy ef- ficiency message through- out Wessex Water to drive down energy costs. • Drivers the dashboards will enable the operations teams to identify items of plant, sys- tems and even entire sites where intervention could reduce energy use

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