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Indiana Energy Management Pilot for Public Wastewater and Drinking Water Utilities

Contact Information

For more information about the Indiana Energy Management Pilot, contact:

Louann Unger
(unger.louann@epa.gov)
312-353-5089

Links

Energy management has multiple benefits.

The group of ten pilot utilities reported a total annual reduction in energy usage of more than 6.5 million kilowatt hours and 192,000 therms.

As a result, the group saved $234,669 annually on energy bills and avoided the emission of 5,436 metric tons of greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide equivalent.

EPA published the Energy Management Guidebook for Water and Wastewater Utilities in 2008 to help the nation's public drinking water and wastewater utilities reduce energy use and costs. Built around a "Plan-Do-Check-Act" management systems framework, the guidebook describes an adaptive approach any wastewater or drinking water utility can use to produce clean and safe water with less purchased energy.

Between 2009 and 2011, Indiana Department of Environmental Management and EPA Region 5 partnered to work with three drinking-water and seven wastewater utilities to pilot the guidebook and share the experience. During the pilot, IDEM and EPA helped the utilities assess energy use and develop energy improvement action plans, and Global Environment & Technology Foundation provided technical support to help the utilities work through one complete Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle:

"Plan" (October 2009 - September 2010)
Utilities established energy teams, acknowledged management's organizational goals, developed an energy policy, identified interested parties, assessed where energy is used, and began benchmarking energy use.

"Do" (September 2010 - February 2011)
Utilities identified and prioritized potential energy conservation measures, developed and implemented environmental improvement action plans (EIPs), maintained documentation of energy management procedures, developed standard operating procedures, provided employee training where needed, and monitored progress.

"Check/Act" (March - September 2011)
Utilities continued to implement their EIPs, monitored progress and take corrective action where needed. They provided input to energy management system elements and assessed how energy management has improved their energy efficiency. They also provided information for the Pilot Summary Report and fact sheets.

Documents

You will need Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

A full summary report of the pilot and individual fact sheets for each utility are available. Also available as a result of the pilot are short guides to supplement the guidebook and example energy management system manuals, one for a drinking water and one for a wastewater utility. Though the manuals represent fictional utilities, they are completed with real-world data from the pilot and show how guidebook outputs fit together in one document.

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