The City of Albany Water Reclamation Facility saved an estimated $66,000 in annual energy costs by participating in Strategic Energy Management, which focuses on identifying no- and low-cost operations and maintenance improvements.

Plant employees worked with Energy Trust for 11 months, receiving training and tools, and developing skills on how to identify energy-saving opportunities that deliver significant and long-term savings. They developed an energy management policy, set an energy savings goal and formed an energy team to implement energy-saving strategies and track progress.

Employees teamed up with Energy Trust in a day-long “energy treasure hunt,” fanning out across the plant to examine processes and procedures, review operating schedules and look for energy-saving opportunities.

“The treasure hunt pointed to some big wins,” said Scott LaRoque, plant supervisor. “We optimized our aeration control valves and set up a maintenance schedule to clean dissolved oxygen probes weekly, both of which stop blowers from running unnecessarily.”

Energy Trust provided web-based tools so Albany can track energy use in real-time and normalize energy use for load, weather and other variables.

“Strategic Energy Management taught us how to optimize our entire process in a way that will persist,” LaRoque said.

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