The ENERGY STAR Score for Wastewater Treatment Plants applies to primary, secondary, and advanced treatment facilities with or without nutrient removal capacity. The objective of the ENERGY STAR score is to provide a fair assessment of the energy performance of a property relative to its peers, taking into account the climate, weather, and business activities at the property. To identify the aspects of building activity that are significant drivers of energy use and then normalize for those factors, a statistical analysis of the peer building population is performed. The result of this analysis is an equation that will predict the energy use of a property, based on its experienced business activities. The energy use prediction for a building is compared to its actual energy use to yield a 1 to 100 percentile ranking of performance, relative to the national population.
- Property Types. The ENERGY STAR score for wastewater treatment plants applies to primary, secondary, and advanced treatment facilities, but does not apply to drinking water treatment or distribution utilities.
- Reference Data. The analysis for wastewater treatment facilities is based on survey data collected by the American Waterworks Association Research Foundation (AwwaRF).
- Adjustments for Weather and Business Activity. The analysis includes adjustments for:
- Influent Flow
- Influent Biological Oxygen Demand
- Effluent Biological Oxygen Demand
- Plant Load Factor
- Whether or not the facility has trickle filtration
- Whether or not the facility has nutrient removal
- Weather and Climate (using Heating and Cooling Degree Days, retrieved based on Zip code)
- Release Date. The ENERGY STAR score for wastewater treatment plants was released in October 2007.
This document presents details on the development of the 1-100 ENERGY STAR score for wastewater treatment plants. More information on the overall approach to develop ENERGY STAR scores is covered in our Technical Reference for the ENERGY STAR Score, available at www.energystar.gov/ENERGYSTARScore. The subsequent sections of this document offer specific details on the development of the ENERGY STAR score for wastewater treatment plants.
Download more information about the ENERGY STAR score for wastewater treatment plants here. (PDF, 855.6 KB)