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Xcel awards Council’s wastewater division for outstanding energy conservation

When it comes to reducing electricity use, Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES) is as good as gold.

MCES, the division responsible for collecting and treating the vast majority of the region’s wastewater, earned a Gold Award from Xcel Energy for the highest electrical savings of all the utility’s large commercial and industrial customers in Minnesota between January 2010 and June 2011.

During the 18-month period, MCES reduced its electrical use by 11.2 gigawatt hours, or the equivalent of unplugging more than 1,200 homes from the grid. MCES has reduced its annual electrical costs by $2.5 million from 2006, the year it embarked on a massive energy conservation effort.

“For customers of MCES – industries and municipalities in the Twin Cities region and ultimately, every resident who flushes a toilet, or runs a washing machine or dishwasher – it means lower sewer bills,” said Jason Willett, MCES Finance Director. “And for all of Minnesota, this means a little bit more energy security and independence.”  

R. Scott Getty, Key Account Manager for Xcel, has nothing but praise for the Council and its Environmental Services staff. “If they didn’t have strong leadership, strategic vision and excellent management, it wouldn’t have happened,” Getty said.

Savings result from aggressive goal-setting

In 2006, MCES General Manager Bill Moore set a goal to reduce, or offset by renewable energy generated, the net nonrenewable energy purchased for wastewater operations by 15% in 2010.  MCES’s partnership with Xcel provided financial incentives, which helped motivate some of the efficiency studies of various operations to determine if and how energy use could be cut back.

The biggest focus of the conservation efforts was reducing electrical use, because electricity accounts for the largest share of the division’s energy use and is the most expensive. Between 2006 and the end of 2010, MCES’s electrical use declined 17%.

“I’m extremely proud of our Energy Team and our entire staff,” Moore said. “Engineers, operators and managers are all becoming champions of energy savings in our day-to-day operations. This effort has been so successful that I am confident we can achieve much more in the future.”

MCES sets new goals for 2015 and 2020

Early this year, MCES set new, more aggressive goals for 2015 and 2020. The new goals call for reducing MCES-purchased energy use by 25% compared with the 2006 baseline by 2015. Looking further ahead to 2020, Moore has established a reduction goal of 50%.  

In order to meet the goals, the agency is focusing on capital projects. (Maintenance and operations were largely the focus of the first four years.) Examples of projects already under way or anticipated to be completed by year-end 2015:

• Installing a non-condensing steam electric-generating turbine at the Metro Plant to replace a pressure-reducing station.
• Installing anaerobic digesters at the Blue Lake Plant to offset most of the solids-drying operation’s natural gas use.
• Studying the addition of more digestion and solar facilities where economically feasible.
• Completing lighting redesign measures at several plants.

MCES and Xcel recently entered a third memorandum of understanding that will continue to provide conservation study funds and enhanced rebates from Xcel’s conservation improvement program. The Council also partners with state agencies, metro counties, the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce on energy matters.

The regional wastewater collection and treatment system is financed by user fees. MCES’s rates for its municipal customers are about 40% lower than the national average, according to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.