Reduce the cost of electricity at your WWTP by taking advantage of operational flexibility.
Turn idle flexibility, pump speed, blower control, and biogas storage, into a quantified electricity cost saving, backed by simulation, before you invest in control systems or capital upgrades on your plant. Combining spot electricity pricing exposure with an advanced control scheme that is linked to real-time electricity market and plant data can generate substantial savings in electricity cost and reduce nett carbon emissions. Having this quantified is exactly what a business case needs that a generic estimate cannot provide.
The problem
Most WWTPs already have the physical flexibility to shift electricity demand. Effluent pumping can be timed around price. Blower speed can be adjusted within dissolved oxygen tolerances. Biogas from anaerobic digestion can be stored and used to run a cogen engine when it is worth more to generate than to buy. Increasingly, plants also carry solar PV and battery storage that could be dispatched against the market rather than left to run on default settings.
The difficulty is rarely the physical asset. It is the absence of a credible, quantified answer to a simple question: what is this flexibility actually worth against real wholesale price volatility, and is it worth the capital and operational risk to control it?
Without that answer, demand response stays a good idea nobody can put a business case around, and cogeneration or anaerobic digestion upgrades on smaller plants than would normally justify the investment stay unfunded.
What I deliver
I provide the data and analysis that underpins a demand response business case for a WWTP, built from a purpose developed simulation of your plant’s actual flexible assets against real five minute National Electricity Market price data.
The simulation models, in combination or individually depending on what your plant has:
- Effluent pump speed control, shifting pumping load to lower price periods within operational limits
- Blower speed control against dissolved oxygen setpoint, providing short duration flexibility without compromising treatment performance
- Anaerobic digestion biogas storage and cogeneration engine dispatch, timed against spot price rather than run continuously
- Solar PV generation and battery storage dispatch
The output compares controlled and uncontrolled operation, under both your current retail tariff and direct spot price exposure, so you can see the value of control itself, and the additional value of moving from a retail to a spot based arrangement.
This is an evidence base for a capex or operational change decision, not a control system. It is the report and dataset your board or council needs to see before committing further.
How it works
1. Plant data and asset review. I work with your operations team to establish the real constraints, pump curves, DO tolerances, and storage and generation assets, so the simulation reflects what your plant can actually do, not a generic model.
2. Simulation against real market data. Your plant’s flexibility is simulated against historical five minute NEM spot price data using a dedicated forecasting and optimisation approach, comparing controlled and passive operation under retail and spot pricing.
3. Business case report. You receive a report quantifying the electricity cost saving available, the sensitivity of that saving to price volatility and plant configuration, and, where relevant, the additional case for capacity that would not otherwise be justified on a smaller plant.
4. Optional next steps. If the business case supports proceeding, I can help you scope the implementation with an integration and provider on your SCADA platform, and facilitate the conversation with your electricity retailer around spot price exposure and margins.
Why this analysis, not a generic estimate
I built the simulation and forecasting approach myself, informed by PhD research into control and optimisation of integrated wastewater treatment systems and energy, and published research on energy shifting in wastewater treatment. The pricing engine uses actual five minute settlement data, not averaged or indicative figures, so the business case reflects real price volatility rather than a simplified estimate.
I bring both sides of this problem together directly: wastewater plant operation, from delivery of major treatment plant projects, and electricity market participation, from working engineering planning in the energy sector.
Who this is for
Water utilities and councils operating plants with pumping, aeration, or anaerobic digestion assets who want a quantified, defensible answer on whether demand response participation is worth pursuing, particularly where waste and energy projects only make sense by the book.
Get started
If you want to know what your plant’s flexibility is actually worth, I can scope a feasibility study specific to your assets.