Veolia Energy North America, an operator and developer of energy-efficient solutions, announced that SourceOne, its energy management and consulting services subsidiary, has completed a major project with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) to improve the efficiency and overall performance of the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Deer Island, Mass.
The Deer Island plant is considered the centerpiece of MWRA’s $3.8-billion program to protect Boston Harbor against pollution from Boston’s sewer systems.
“As a large energy consumer, MWRA’s Deer Island plant is a perfect candidate to identify and implement cost-effective solutions to drive efficiency and increase performance,” SourceOne President Vincent Martin said. “The MWRA has fully embraced sustainability and energy efficiency by implementing energy savings measures as well as distributed generation projects.”
The Deer Island energy-efficient infrastructure upgrades include a waste-to-energy boiler plant, a 18,000-kW back pressure steam turbine generator (BPSTG), two 600-kW wind turbine generators and one 100-kW wind turbine generator, two 1,000-kW hydro turbine generators, and more than 700-kW photovoltaic paneling on facility rooftops.
In addition to its existing upgrades, MWRA identified an opportunity to improve efficiency by modifying the existing BPSTG to a condensing unit, yielding more power for each pound of steam generated. However, this solution required delivery of steam to the plant for its use and to supply a heat loop.
SourceOne worked with the MWRA to install a new 1.1-megawatts BPSTG that would exhaust at 15 psig and serve the plant and the heat loop, while generating additional power.
SourceOne focused on developing a conceptual design to integrate this additional power source and select a design-build firm to complete the design, install the additional equipment and commission the equipment for MWRA’s use.
The installation of this new generator will enable the MWRA to take advantage of excess heat produced in the summer, as well as enabling other process efficiency improvements. In addition to making the larger generating unit more efficient, it will generate additional power from the waste heat that can be used productively as “free” energy for the facility.
Source: Veolia Energy North America
