The City of Greeley’s Water Pollution Control Facility (WPCF) and MillerCoors brewery in Golden received awards from the State of Colorado for their outstanding achievements in energy efficiency.
The Greeley Wastewater Treatment plant lowered its energy consumption per gallon of water treated by 13%. WPCF was part of of the Colorado Industrial Energy Challenge (CIEC) that this year included 18 others including a ski resort and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and beverage containers. The program emphasizes the benefits of good energy management practices—management support for long-term energy-saving goals, an energy champion and team, and systems to monitor energy consumption for specific processes.
Greeley’s wastewater facility treats eight million gallons of effluent per day as a city service. This is the second CIEC award for the plant, which established an energy management plan several years ago that continues to deliver savings. Energy use displays are part of educational tours at the plant.
“We spent $260,000 in the past two years to cut our energy use and costs,” said Tom Dingeman, division manager. “We added variable speed drives to several of our water pumps and upgraded our heating and cooling systems for several buildings.” Employees took advantage of the facility’s energy consumption displays to tweak equipment controls for additional energy savings.
Greeley Wastewater Treatment also switched to LEDs in pole-mounted lighting systems outside at the treatment ponds. Dingeman said the new bulbs deliver significant energy savings, provide better quality light and reduce maintenance costs because they last so much longer.
In 2014, the plant signed a Joint Energy Efficiency Plan with Xcel Energy that confirms the intent to complete several additional projects through 2018 that will further reduce the plant’s energy use and costs.