Optimizing wastewater treatment through advanced energy monitoring

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) face a number of challenges that extend beyond simple operational concerns. These facilities must navigate aging infrastructure, increasingly stringent regulatory requirements and pressures to improve sustainability — all while managing energy costs that account for 25% to 30% of a WWTP’s total operating budget. 

In this landscape, efficient energy management has evolved from an operational nice-to-have to an absolute necessity, with more plant managers turning to sophisticated energy monitoring solutions to provide visibility into energy usage. By monitoring and measuring parameters such as reactive power and power factor, for example, these systems can help WWTPs optimize how energy is being consumed — improving equipment performance, reducing maintenance and bringing sustainability goals closer within reach.

While sophisticated energy monitoring solutions have traditionally been cost-prohibitive for many WWTPs, recent innovations are bridging this gap. New solutions provide an accessible middle ground that brings powerful energy monitoring capabilities to legacy systems through Modbus connectivity. This democratization of energy monitoring technology means that WWTPs of all sizes can now implement systems that were once reserved for operations with substantial capital investment capabilities.

These more accessible monitoring solutions feature integration flexibility and straightforward installation, making them ideal for diverse settings and unlocking new capabilities in older wastewater equipment without extensive retrofitting. Here is how these readily deployable energy systems are transforming energy from a fixed operational expense into a dynamic variable ripe for optimization in wastewater plants.

Critical energy consumers in wastewater treatment

Understanding where and how energy is consumed in wastewater treatment operations is fundamental to effective optimization. The biggest energy culprits include:

• Aeration systems: Aeration blowers and diffusers supply oxygen to microorganisms that break down organic matter. These systems — such as those found in activated sludge processes — represent a large energy consumer in most WWTPs, making their optimization critical for plant efficiency.
• Pumping stations: Essential for moving wastewater through various treatment stages, pumps operate continuously and represent significant energy loads. Their efficiency directly impacts both energy costs and system reliability.
• Chemical dosing systems: Precise chemical addition requires reliable pumping systems that must operate efficiently while delivering accurate dosing rates. Energy monitoring ensures these systems maintain optimal performance while minimizing waste.
• Mixing and agitation equipment: Critical for proper treatment process conditions, these systems require consistent power delivery and benefit from power quality optimization.

Compounding the challenges associated with this energy-intensive equipment, WWTPs face additional operational and infrastructure hurdles that further complicate energy management efforts. For example, designed to last 40 to 50 years, many plants operate with outdated infrastructure. At the same time, securing funding for upgrades and maintenance remains a persistent challenge. Plant managers also face regulatory burdens, with continuous monitoring and reporting requirements creating significant operational overhead. 

Operating in industries such as oil and gas, mining and manufacturing, WWTPs expend a significant amount of energy, impacting total operational costs. These industries must also meet strict environmental standards, requiring the use of advanced treatment technologies that can handle wastewater complexities — including varying pH levels, total suspended solids, organics, fats, oils and greases, for example.

Sustainability advantages of energy monitoring

Understanding how wastewater systems consume energy makes energy management a critical concern for operational sustainability and cost control. Energy monitoring systems provide the visibility and control necessary to optimize these processes, ensuring they operate at peak efficiency without unnecessary energy waste. With the increasing emphasis on sustainability, these technologies also provide the data and insights needed to make informed decisions about energy usage and conservation strategies.

For example, energy monitoring systems such as the Alsense Energy Monitor enable plant managers to track their energy consumption in real-time, identifying areas of waste and opportunities for reduction. Such visibility into energy consumption patterns makes it easier to develop targeted strategies to reduce overall energy usage and the associated carbon emissions. 

Energy monitoring systems also play a vital role in ensuring compliance with increasingly strict environmental regulations. The Alsense monitor’s accurate measurement capabilities — with a base accuracy of 0.15% for voltage and 0.25% for current — help facility managers track and record electricity consumption to meet regulatory requirements and align with global sustainability standards. 

Examples of how the Alsense Energy Monitor supports compliance include:

• Providing accurate energy consumption tracking for regulatory reporting requirements.
• Offering data-driven sustainability reporting supporting ISO 50001 energy management system implementation.
• Establishing baselines for carbon reduction initiatives and energy efficiency programs.
• Collecting automated data to reduce manual reporting burdens and improve accuracy.

Performance advantages of energy monitoring

In addition to their sustainability benefits, energy monitoring systems provide performance advantages thanks to their ability to enhance operational efficiency. With comprehensive measurement capabilities for voltage, current, active and reactive power, and power factor, these systems allow WWTPs to:

• Improve their power quality
• Optimize reactive power
• Correct power factor

The result — WWTPs will run more efficiently at lower costs. Let’s take a closer look at these three examples.

Improving power quality

Energy monitoring provides an important foundation for detecting and mitigating power quality issues that affect wastewater equipment performance. This data allows facility managers to detect voltage sags, swells, harmonics and other problematic events, which, if left unchecked, can affect equipment performance.

For example, by tracking and analyzing various electrical parameters like voltage and current, the Alsense system helps WWTP managers identify inefficiencies and anomalies such as harmonics and transient events. If left unchecked, harmonics can cause equipment overheating, nuisance tripping and premature component failure, while transient events — which often go unnoticed — can impact equipment lifespan and reliability.

The Alsense system’s real-time monitoring capabilities provide visibility into the correlation between these events and machine performance issues, empowering operators to identify problematic equipment and take strategic steps to avoid more damaging consequences. 

Optimizing reactive power

A second example involves reactive power, which plays an important role in maintaining voltage stability in electrical systems. The Alsense monitor's ability to measure reactive power is essential for ensuring proper voltage levels throughout a wastewater facility.

Reactive power requires careful optimization: having too little can cause voltage drops, leading to equipment malfunctions or failures, while excessive reactive power can create overvoltage conditions that damage equipment. By monitoring and optimizing reactive power levels, the Alsense system helps WWTP managers maintain ideal voltage conditions, ensuring reliable equipment performance and preventing production disruptions.

Reactive power management can also extend the lifespan of wastewater treatment equipment by preventing overheating and reducing wear and tear. Excessive reactive power can lead to higher currents and overheating, damaging transformers and motors. By ensuring that equipment operates within optimal parameters, reactive power monitoring helps decrease maintenance costs and prolong service life. The resulting reduction in replacement and repair costs represents a significant long-term financial benefit for municipal and industrial wastewater operations.

Power factor correction and cost benefits

By helping plant managers optimize energy consumption and reduce waste, energy monitoring systems unlock significant cost benefits while extending equipment lifespan. A low power factor, which is common with inductive loads such as motors and transformers, significantly impacts both operational expenses and equipment reliability.

For WWTP managers, a poor power factor creates multiple challenges such as higher electricity bills and greater equipment strain. When power factor is low, motors and transformers generate excessive reactive power, burdening the power supply system. This, in turn, leads to voltage fluctuations and harmonic distortions that accelerate equipment wear and tear, causing premature component failure and increasing maintenance costs.

By measuring power factor, the Alsense system allows WWTP managers to identify problem areas across three-phase systems. By detecting which equipment or processes contribute to power factor issues, facility managers can implement targeted correction measures, thus reducing electricity costs, enhancing power supply stability and extending equipment life.

Conclusion

In today’s regulatory and economic environment, wastewater treatment facilities can no longer afford to treat energy as a fixed cost. Energy monitoring systems represent a transformative solution for facilities seeking to optimize energy performance while maintaining reliable, compliant operation. 

By providing comprehensive visibility into energy consumption patterns and power quality issues, these systems enable proactive energy management in a way that delivers significant operational, financial and environmental benefits — all of which is essential for protecting public health and environmental quality.