Brown and Cadwell is awarded $100K grant to study energy optimization
A research team led by Brown and Caldwell was awarded a $100,000 grant from The Water Research Foundation (WRF) to study energy optimization, through the “Developing a Framework for Quantifying Energy Optimization Reporting” project.
The resulting framework will help water and wastewater utilities make informed capital expenditure decisions and increase confidence in future energy efficiency and emission reduction efforts.
The project team includes 25 water and electrical utilities, as well as academia and industry associations. Around 35-40 completed energy projects will be analyzed to compare actual economic performance to the values forecasted before project commencement. The study is scheduled for completion by spring 2023.
Energy projects are often discretionary and initiated based on projected annual energy savings metrics. The water industry lacks standard estimation methods for these savings, as well as measurement and verification (M&V) approaches and procedures to quantify results. This inconsistency can lead to inaccurate estimations and a lack of confidence in optimistic savings and capital cost forecasts for energy projects across the One Water cycle.
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