Reduce your plant’s energy costs without jeopardising stable operations
For managers of WWTP operations or energy supply contracts, Delprosa quantifies the impact of a plant control system that responds to the real-time price of energy. Having those quantified savings in the business case is the key to getting the energy cost reduction program off the ground.
What the simulation delivers before the price responsive control is implemented
- ✓ A simulation built on wastewater process knowledge, validated against your own data
- ✓ A transparent forecast of the cost, and of the operation
- ✓ Savings quantified, with sensitivity to price volatility
- ✓ The plant continues to be operated within the constraints specified by the operators
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. Every route starts the same way: an assessment of your plant, then a validated simulation of it.
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.
Historic usage records how the plant was controlled. The simulation shows how much can be saved using advanced price responsive control.
Your energy cost is set by the pattern of electricity use across the plant, and that pattern is set by how the plant is controlled. A high-level average, or a look at historic usage, only tells part of the story: it shows how the plant ran under the control strategy it had at the time, not what it could achieve under a control strategy designed to minimise energy cost. By overlaying that advanced control scheme inside a validated simulation of the plant, Delprosa shows the full story of what is possible, and quantifies the savings with far more certainty than generic analysis. The visualiser shows how the plant would be controlled under that scheme, so you see the operation behind the numbers, not just the results.
Modelled as an operating plant, not a simplified load
Generic simulation platforms treat the plant as a simplified load rather than a full operating system, so a change that looks good on one part of the process can quietly create a problem somewhere else.
Grounded in how treatment plants actually work
The simulations use the same process engineering fundamentals used to design and operate treatment plants, underpinned by research into integrated energy and wastewater systems.
A transparent, plant-specific forecast
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.
The model reflects how treatment plants actually work
What makes the simulation different is the process knowledge it draws on: decades of design and operations experience in wastewater treatment. It starts from the plant, not the market.
Designed for wastewater treatment
Standard simulation platforms are typically built around a generic plant profile or a simplified electrical load. Fitting a real plant into that framework means either overriding the assumptions built into the tool, which undermines the output, or accepting results that do not reflect how the plant actually behaves.
Configured to your plant and how it operates
Every treatment plant has its own process configuration, asset types and sizes, and plant operating and control philosophy. The model is configured to that physical setup and to the way the plant is operated. The parts are interdependent, so each setting is made carefully to hold together with the rest of the model and with the plant as it actually runs, before the control scheme best suited to that plant is found.
Grounded in process knowledge
The business case is built from the plant outward, never backwards from a target savings figure. The simulation quantifies what the plant could achieve under price responsive control, compared with how it runs today, so the saving reflects the real difference between operating strategies rather than an assumed percentage.
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.