Busselton Water continues energy efficient efforts

Busselton Water’s focus on driving energy efficiency across its business has seen the local water corporation expand its bank of solar panels and take a new and innovative approach to securing a new energy partner.

In a first for the corporation, as part of its biennial process to secure an energy supplier, Busselton Water used a specialist energy management company to manage the contract process and provide advice and assistance.

“Every two years, we go to market for our energy supply – looking to improve our costs and efficiencies each time. This year, for the first time, we engaged energy management company EnerNOC to assist us,” said CEO Chris Elliott.

“It’s a new approach for us – and one we believe has been highly beneficial,” he added.

“The energy market is complex and ever-evolving, so to have specialists who can use their expertise to drive the procurement process was tremendous. They were powerful negotiators for us and offered market insights, modelling and specialist advice along the way,” Mr Elliott said.

“Perhaps most significantly, we believe that the resulting partnership with our new energy supplier – Alinta Energy – will deliver tens of thousands of dollars in savings to the business, which ultimately benefits our customers,” he said.

Under the new agreement with Alinta Energy, Busselton Water is expected to reduce electricity costs through careful management of its energy demand through an unbundled pricing structure.

In a further effort to reduce its carbon footprint, Busselton Water extended its partnership with West Australian Alternative Energy (WAAE) to install 70 new solar panels on the Administration Centre building on Fairbairn Road.

The anticipated energy efficiencies further bolster Busselton Water’s efforts to reduce its energy footprint through the installation of solar panels at its Water Treatment Plant 2 and subsequent investigations into pump efficiency improvements and installation of solar across more of its assets.

“The 70 new solar panels will extend our energy saving capabilities and will offset almost half (46%) of our power use each year. The combined generation across two of our sites which have solar will be more than 200 MWh per year,” said Mr Elliott.

“We’re in a time where businesses of all sizes need to consider their impact on the environment and we’re proud to be continuously investigating new technology and practices to reduce our footprint.”