WHAT WE DO > Energy Efficiency Services

Contact Information

Representatives of eligible facilities with questions about NYPA's energy services programs for water and wastewater facilities can e-mail us at Energy2013@nypa.gov or leave a message on our Energy2013 toll-free hotline, (866) 314-4110. 

 

Energy Services for Water and Wastewater Facilities

NYPA’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs for publicly owned facilities save taxpayers money while they help clean the air.  We have upgraded lighting and sensors in buildings throughout the state, installed boilers and chillers, mounted solar panels, replaced windows and developed energy management systems.

Over the past decade, NYPA has completed energy efficiency projects at over two dozen wastewater facilities statewide, resulting in over $35 million in energy savings. In March 2009, we announced a campaign to reduce by approximately 20 percent the energy demand of water supply and wastewater treatment plants in New York State by 2015 and help to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Electricity constitutes between 25 and 40 percent of the budget of a typical wastewater treatment plant and 80 percent of the cost of processing and distributing drinking water. To achieve energy savings at these facilities, NYPA will promote a combination of on-site solar electric power systems, biogas recovery to supply on-site power, and energy efficiency measures.

Initiatives to date include:

• A more than $4 million energy efficiency project at Bergen Point Wastewater Treatment plant in West Babylon that will save Suffolk County an estimated $388,000 a year in energy costs;
• A more than $2-million upgrade of the chiller plant at the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant, in Nassau County, for an estimated savings of $158,000 a year on the Seaford facility’s electric bills;
• A major overhaul of the boiler system at the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant in upper Manhattan;
• A solar photovoltaic installation and process-equipment upgrade at the Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plant in Yonkers;
• A new heating system at the City of Rome Water Filtration Plant;
• Installation of eight fuel cells at four sewage treatment plants operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and a single fuel cell unit and solar-power photovoltaic system at the Westchester wastewater plant; and
• Installation of two waste-gas-burning microturbines at a wastewater treatment facility in the Town of Lewiston in Niagara County.