Pumping is schedulable storage
Filling a reservoir at midday and coasting through the evening peak shifts load with no battery at all.
Industry
Water districts and municipalities
Moving and treating water is one of the largest electricity costs a public agency carries. It is also one of the most predictable, which makes it unusually easy to model well.
- Load shape
- Continuous treatment plus seasonal pumping
- Typical system
- 200 kW DC to 4 MW DC
The load
What the meter sees
Treatment plants run continuously. Aeration blowers, influent and effluent pumps, UV systems and sludge handling operate around the clock, producing a steady base load with modest daily variation. That is a straightforward load to match with generation.
Distribution and irrigation pumping is different: it is seasonal, schedulable and often very large. Because it is schedulable, it is also the best load-shifting opportunity in the sector. Filling a reservoir or a tank during the midday generation window, and holding off through the expensive evening peak, is storage without a battery.
Land is rarely the constraint. Districts hold basins, canal banks, well sites and plant yards, much of it unsuitable for anything else and ideally suited to ground-mount. Multiple small arrays at separate meters is a common and sensible pattern.
The procurement path is its own discipline. Public agencies work through published solicitations, prevailing wage, bonding and board approval calendars. We build to that programme rather than around it, and we price with those requirements already in the number.
Load inventory
The equipment that sets the bill
| Load | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Raw and finished water pumping | Large motors, often schedulable against tank and reservoir levels |
| Aeration blowers | Continuous and frequently the largest single load at a treatment plant |
| UV and chemical dosing | Continuous, small, and critical enough to warrant backup |
| Sludge handling and dewatering | Batch operation that can often be scheduled into generation hours |
| Lift stations across the district | Many small meters, each a candidate for its own small array |
How we approach it
What works in this sector
Land the district already holds
Basin margins, canal banks and well sites carry ground-mount without acquiring anything.
Backup where it counts
Storage sized for controls, dosing and a critical pump keeps a plant compliant through an outage.
Public procurement, done properly
Prevailing wage, bonding, published solicitations and board calendars are in our programme and in our price.
Answers
Water districts and municipalities: questions
Not covered here? Our engineers answer directly, not through a call centre.
Ask a question(661) 555-0183Sometimes. California has had arrangements allowing certain public agencies to apply generation credits across multiple accounts, with eligibility rules and limits. It is exactly the kind of thing to confirm with the utility before designing, and we do that in the screening stage.
It is assumed. Public works projects of this type are prevailing-wage jobs, our labour is priced accordingly and certified payroll is part of the deliverable.
Corrosive atmospheres near headworks and chemical storage need attention: stainless hardware, appropriate enclosure ratings and sensible siting. We design for the environment rather than pretending it is a warehouse roof.
For critical circuits, yes. We build a critical-load schedule with your operations staff, size storage against it, and coordinate with any existing standby generation.
Bring us the bill before you bring us the roof
Every project starts with twelve months of interval data and a load shape. The array comes after that, sized to what you actually use.
CSLB #1071482 (sample). Prevailing wage on public works. Engineers answer, not a call centre.