Pump Station, Westmoreland, PA

Flow: 2.4 MGD
Pressure: 60 Feet
kW: 30
Intertie: Behind Meter
Raw Water
Start-up: 2010
Mandated Release

In Pennsylvania, the Municipal Authority of Westmorland County (MAWC) is required by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to comply with a continuous discharge mandate. The minimum flow rate from the Beaver Run Reservoir to Beaver Run Creek must be 6.5 million gallons a day (MGD). With a rising cost of electricity and removal of rate caps, the MAWC was faced with the challenge of meeting the discharge requirement while non-invasively recovering energy for behind-the-meter use at their pump station. The pre-existing system consisted of two parallel pipes, one 8-inch diameter and one 12-inch diameter. Both of those pipes lead from the industrial raw water main to the Beaver Run Creek. Rentricity used its Flow-to-Wire turbine and SEMS control system in combination to create a unique energy recovery system to fit MAWC’s needs.

By August 2010, Rentricity installed a new underground vault to house a 30kW turbine generator. In addition, Rentricity replaced the 8-inch line with a 12-inch bypass line to accommodate the mandated 6.5MGD release in the event that the turbine generator drops offline. In normal operation mode the turbine generator operates continuously. For added convenience, the SEMS control panel in the pump house allows for local or remote startup. The system is recovering energy for MAWC that was previously lost. The system is producing over 250,000 kWh per year. This is saving more than $40,000 annually for MAWC. Electricity costs make up one-third of their production budget.