Reduce your plant’s energy costs without jeopardising stable operations
WWTPs are energy intensive but Delprosa reduces the energy costs using a price-responsive control method.
Our approach is to implement a controller that shifts load to cheaper periods and smooths peaks by leveraging inherent process storage capacity. This is done within defined operational constraints to maintain plant stability.
The first step is to configure and validate the WWTP simulation model to your plant specifics. An advanced controller is then designed using forecasts of inflow, load and weather conditions, applied against the relevant price signal, to adjust operating setpoints and schedules.
The simulation compares the controlled operation against your baseline, so you can quantify the savings in your business case before implementing anything. Three pathways capture that saving, explained below.
Three routes to lower energy costs, quantified by one simulation
Energy is one of the largest controllable costs at a treatment plant. Delprosa shines a spotlight on how to reduce that cost without creating other operational problems. You’re in control of which route you choose and Delprosa can help you select which one best suits your circumstances.
1. Demand Response
The business case for moving some or all of your load onto the wholesale spot market, and the design of the pump scheduling that captures the opportunity without compromising treatment.
2. Tariff Optimisation
The operational changes available within your existing retail contract: savings captured without changing your risk position.
3. Alternate Tariffs
A model of how your plant would perform under alternative tariff structures, so competing offers are compared on realistic operating outcomes rather than headline rates.
This is about using energy at the right time.
Energy efficiency and price responsive control are complementary, but they are not the same thing. Our approach to controlling energy focuses on shifting load in time, aligned to market conditions, and validated against your plant’s specific operating constraints.
About when, not just how much
Energy efficiency reduces how much energy a process uses. This approach is complementary — it shifts when energy is drawn, leveraging the storage capacity in your treatment process to move load to cheaper periods without reducing treatment performance.
Aligned to market conditions
Rather than optimising equipment in isolation, the simulation aligns your plant’s operation with wholesale prices, demand charges and tariff structures, capturing value from the timing of energy use as well as the volume.
Simulated against your specific plant
The business case is built from a model of your actual plant — its pumps, tanks, process constraints and control logic — not from industry averages or generic load profiles.
Credible cost savings
Built on extensive experience across energy-intensive industries, the simulation delivers outputs you can act on with confidence.
Validated against your plant data
Calibrated and verified using your actual operational data so results reflect real plant behaviour.
Transparent forecast of cost and operation
A detailed forecast of how your plant would operate and what it would cost, with every assumption visible.
Savings quantified with price sensitivity
The saving is calculated hour by hour and tested against price volatility so the business case holds up.
Within your operational constraints
Operation stays within the constraints your operators specify, so treatment standards are never compromised.
Historic usage records how the plant was controlled. The simulation shows how much can be saved using advanced price responsive control.
The visualiser shows how the plant would be controlled under the price responsive scheme, so you see the operation behind the numbers, not just the results.
Compared against your baseline, not an assumed percentage
The saving is the difference between how the plant runs today and how it would run under the price responsive controller, quantified hour by hour across a full year of operation.
A visualiser that shows how the plant would be controlled, not just the numbers
You can see the setpoints, schedules and process responses that the controller would use, so the business case is based on something you can inspect and interrogate.
A transparent forecast of cost and operation you can inspect before committing
The recommendation comes with a forecast of what will actually happen across the operation as a whole, not just to the energy cost, so you see the trade-offs before you commit to a change.
Assessing a capital investment
Any of the three routes can be extended into a CAPEX Business Case Assessment: testing whether new or larger assets such as pumps, blowers, storage, solar PV, batteries or cogeneration would strengthen the outcome. The case for those assets rests on the capacity they add: generation and storage that can be dispatched against the wholesale price or used for peak shaving or retail arbitrage. The simulation quantifies that benefit in the same model, alongside everything else that can be shifted. Where a case supports moving ahead, Delprosa can help deliver the engineering design and project management through to commissioning.
Industrial experience, applied to wastewater treatment
Dr Rickey Donald has worked across energy-intensive industries for decades, including water treatment, chemicals, oil and gas, minerals, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages production, and more recently in clean tech and energy. For clients, that breadth is a practical advantage: the simulation captures how real industrial processes respond to changes in operation, so recommendations hold up in practice, not just on paper. It shapes every assumption inside the model, such as how pumps and blowers behave under partial load, how much flexibility digestion and process storage genuinely offer, and where the limits of safe operation sit, rather than treating the plant as a simplified load. The same method applies beyond wastewater to any plant with flexible, controllable load, such as pumping, compression, refrigeration and batch processing, so if you operate outside water and wastewater, it is worth a conversation to see what can be achieved.
Why a simulation is needed
Market information and price alerts tell you when electricity is expensive. A simulation of your plant tells you what you can actually do about it, and what it is worth. The saving is calculated from your plant’s specific response, not drawn from market averages or industry benchmarks.
Models the actual plant response to price
The simulation works from your pump curves, tank volumes, process constraints and control logic. That means the response to a price signal is the real physical response of your plant, not a generic load profile.
Shows the numbers behind the business case
Annual saving, hourly cost profiles, demand charge impacts, all with the assumptions visible, so the saving is provable before anything changes, not an estimate drawn from historical analysis or market monitoring.
You stay in control of the engagement
Retail negotiation: led by you
You hold the commercial relationship, and Delprosa stays independent, so negotiating with your retailer is something you lead. Delprosa supports those discussions where useful, without ever becoming the intermediary.
Control system integration: your choice
Implementation is approached however you prefer. Many clients mandate their trusted integrator, and Delprosa works with any integrator you choose. You can project-manage the implementation yourself, or hand it to Delprosa as part of a delivery engagement.
The first step is a plant assessment
It tells you quickly whether there is a case worth building, and which of the three routes fits your circumstances. It is the same first step under every engagement.