New EPA Guidebook to Help Water Utilities Improve Energy Management

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its water and wastewater partners are learning more and doing more to confront serious challenges related to rising energy costs. A new guidance, Ensuring a Sustainable Future: An Energy Management Guidebook for Wastewater and Water Utilities, will help utilities systematically assess their current energy costs and practices, set measurable performance improvement goals and monitor and measure their progress over time.

Steadily rising energy costs and associated environmental effects have made energy use one of the most pressing challenges facing water utilities. Energy management is also at the heart of efforts across the industry to ensure that water and wastewater systems are operated in a sustainable way.

The guidance follows the successful “Plan-Do-Check-Act” methodology embodied in environmental management systems and other utility management tools. It was developed with the help of utilities that are successfully confronting their own energy challenges using this approach. It will serve as a step-by-step guide to help utilities systematically manage their energy programs over time.

An electronic copy of the handbook is available at www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure/ bettermanagement_energy.html.

Source: U.S. EPA