ESCO (energy service company) performance contracts combine proven energy and operational cost-saving solutions.
Siemens has combined the expertise of its various divisions and business units with key engineering firms to offer municipalities a broad portfolio of products and services that address different aspects of the wastewater treatment process. By applying the ESCO contract model, Siemens now extends its proven sustainable, energy-efficient, and operational cost-saving solutions to customers’ wastewater treatment systems.
Siemens Building Technologies Division is one of the four founding Clinton Climate Initiative ESCOs. The original Initiative focused on energy conservation and emissions reduction in 40 of the world’s largest cities. ESCOs now audit municipal and industrial facilities of all sizes and identify where various cost-cutting measures can be implemented to reduce energy consumption and reduce operational costs. From that analysis, the ESCO audit team develops facility improvement methods that help justify the contract.
On the wastewater treatment side, Siemens has identified numerous measures, innovative solutions, and services that hold potential for cost savings and emissions reductions. Samples of energy services and improvement measures include biosolids reduction, methane gas creation and usage, water conservation and reuse, high-efficiency dryer installation, SCADA system improvements, and aeration system upgrades, to name a few. In addition, measurement and verification services should be implemented to gauge benefits of the program and of staff operations and therefore track and attain the customers’ sustainability and conservation goals.
Glens Falls, N.Y., and Conroe, Texas, are just two wastewater treatment plants to have used successfully the ESCO model to improve facility processes and to reduce costs. Wastewater treatment facility ESCO contracts are performance-based, meaning the ESCO guarantees a certain level of energy saving and thus, protects the performance risks. With wastewater energy savings performance contracts, the ESCO usually includes the design, equipment, installation, and guaranteed savings. The average municipal wastewater treatment plant usually realizes payback in operational savings within 10 to 12 years of entering the contract.
A partnership approach in the process helps identify and deliver energy savings; document success in delivering similar wastewater energy savings performance; and the financial, engineering, and construction capability to rapidly deploy projects without significant operational and financial impacts.
Further information about solutions for ESCOs and wastewater treatment is available at http://www.usa.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies and http://www.water.siemens.com , respectively.
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