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.

By the end of 2009, we'll meet about one fifth of our total electricity needs via renewable energy sources.

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:

• Malabar
• North Head
• St Marys
• Cronulla.

And at the following water pumping stations:

• Prospect
• West Ryde.

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:

• a power factor improvement project
• the NSW Department of Planning's Demand Management & Planning Project.

These projects involve:

• load shifting so processes operate during non-peak periods when demand constraints are at their greatest
• replacing equipment to improve energy efficiency and reduce electricity use
• using standby generation to feed into the electricity grid when electrical demand reaches a critical level.