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Being energy efficient

Sydney Water aims to make the best use of energy and electricity and reduce its carbon footprint. We have committed to becoming carbon neutral for energy and electricity use by 2020.

Pumping and treating water and wastewater uses lots of energy. It accounts for more than 80% of the electricity we use and is why Sydney Water uses almost 1% of NSW energy. That is why being energy efficient is vital to our business.

Energy Savings Action Plans

Sydney Water has prepared Energy Savings Action Plans for a number of our sewage treatment plants and pumping stations. The Department of Environment and Climate Change requires action plans for all sites that use more than 10 gigawatt hours a year.

As a result we now can achieve greenhouse gas savings of over 36,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Savings are already under way at the following sewage treatment plants with many more on the way:

And at the following water pumping stations:

Reducing demand for energy

By reducing our energy use we are helping reduce the operating intensity of electricity networks and power stations throughout Australia. This reduces the greenhouse gas intensity of power plants.

We are doing this through two main demand reduction projects:

These projects involve:

Did you know?

Energy efficiency in our buildings
Sydney Water leads by example when it comes to designing and constructing buildings that are water and energy efficient.
Sydney Water's corporate head office located at One Smith Street, Parramatta and Potts Hill Operational headquarters are designed to achieve a 5-star NABERS Energy and 5-star Green Star rating (Green Building Council Australia).
The Green Star rating signifies Australian excellence in sustainable building design and construction.
Both buildings are designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce drinking water use compared to a typical office building.
Read more about best practice sustainable design (PDF - 1347KB) in our corporate head office.