Microgrids  -  August 19, 2020

Houston expands resiliency at water purification plant

The City of Houston announced Aug. 19 a new natural gas-power microgrid project that will provide electrical resiliency for its Northeast Water Purification Plant (NEWPP) Expansion facility.

The microgrid system will be provided by Enchanted Rock and will provide backup for 100% of the required finished water production capacity during maintenance and grid outage periods. The expansion of the NEWPP facility is scheduled to be completed in Spring 2022.

"The NEWPP project will add 320 million gallons per day by 2024 to the existing water plant's capacity," Ravi Kaleyatodi, P.E., Project Director, NEWPP Expansion Project, at City of Houston, said in a statement. "The City of Houston evaluated several companies and selected Enchanted Rock for this project based on technical requirements, performance of past projects, and competitive pricing."

Research analysts at Wood Mackenzie determined that once operational, this will be the largest microgrid project in the United State supporting a water pumping plant. Enchanted Rock owns, operates and maintains their integrated Reliability on Call (iROC) system, which will allow the city backup electricity at a lower rate.

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