Penticton‘s sewage treatment plant will soon be generating its own electricity too.
The $24-million expansion project, which sees the plant‘s capacity increase by 50 per cent to 27 million litres a day, will also include a $570,000 methane-powered micro turbine.
Len Robson, the city‘s public works manager said Thursday the bio-gas system will produce 60 kilowatts of power, enough to supply about 18 per cent of the plant‘s total electrical requirements.
City council has approved a “change order” to the overall contract awarded to Maple Reinders Inc. to allow the power plant to be included.
Robson said the green technology produces more than just electricity.
“What we also do is extract heat from this,” he said. “It‘s not just electrical generation, it‘s also heat removal for part of the process.”
Although it will take about 41 years for the power savings to recoup the initial investment, future expansion plans in 2015 have a much shorter pay-back period. A second micro-turbine could be installed for about $180,000 which would be recouped within 16 years through lower electrical bills.
The micro-turbine was a key aspect in the sewer plant project acquiring $10.5 million in federal gas tax revenues. The city did not need to increase its borrowing to include the generating facility.
“The ministry was very clear that they wanted this,” Robson said. “So basically, we got this component for free as part of the grant.”
Construction of the sewage treatment plant expansion is well underway with work due to be completed by the spring of 2011. The micro-turbine is expected to arrive within the next three months.
