During Winter Storm Uri, which hit Texas Feb. 12, 2021, more than 14.9 million residents were affected by water outages and unsafe drinking water because water treatment plants lost power or experienced water leaks because of frozen infrastructure.
By Feb. 25, 1.4 million residents still had unsafe drinking water, including 200,000 Texans who lacked water completely.
Only one month ago, when Hurricane Beryl struck the Houston area, knocking out power to more than 2.6 million people for multiple days, the storm created the potential for similar challenges.
Microgrids can keep the power running and help water utilities stave off such environmental and health risks.
Filtration and purification systems must keep operating
“Power outages can be a major concern for wastewater facilities because they can prevent the plant’s filtration and purification systems from working,” explained Natalie Silva, strategic manager for critical power industries at ABB Electrification, which provides electrification products such as solar inverters.
When power goes out, wastewater will continue to build up until the plant regains power, she said. “This not only impacts facility function and productivity, but also poses health risks and resource availability to the communities they serve.”
Inoperable pumps at drinking water utilities can make firefighting difficult and cause businesses and health care facilities to close, she added.
A Texas water authority’s microgrids avoid outage challenges
But for North Fort Bend Water Authority, six microgrids from Enchanted Rock that power six booster pumps averted such troubles during Hurricane Beryl, allowing the water utility to continue serving its customers.
“We did lose power but not for too long. The Enchanted Rock generators kicked on, and we stayed in operation without a hitch,” said Matt Froehlich, director of public works at BGE, a civil consulting firm and program engineer for the water authority.
North Fort Bend Water Authority installed the microgrids about four years ago, replacing three natural gas-fired generators that served as backup but whose maintenance was costly, he said.
“If we didn’t have backup, we’d be at a standstill, we wouldn’t be able to pump water out to our water utilities and they’d have to go on well water,” he said. North Fort Bend Water Authority serves municipal-owned water utilities.
During Hurricane Beryl, the water facilities that didn’t have microgrids or backup systems weren’t able to operate at the pressure they normally do, Froehlich said.
Water utilities seek energy resilience
As storms increase in number, duration and intensity, water utilities are seeking to keep facilities running with microgrids or other backup systems. Some examples:
- Monterey One Water, a wastewater facility in Monterey, California, is developing a microgrid that will be shared with a co-located waste management plant.
- One of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the world — Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C. — plans to build a microgrid that will be implemented in phases with a 2029 finish date.
- The city of Rialto, California, plans to build a microgrid at a wastewater treatment plant with support from Veolia and AECOM.
Storms have knocked out power to numerous water facilities, demonstrating the risks of water treatment facilities losing power – and the benefits of microgrids that keep pumps, water filtration and other critical systems running.
Water boil notices in Texas in 2021
For example, during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the water utility for Fort Worth, Texas, experienced emergency rolling blackouts that left three of the district’s four plants inoperable. Some suffered multiple blackouts over subsequent days and extended boil notices for hundreds of thousands of residents.
During Hurricane Ian, almost one-third of pumping stations lost power in Polk County, Florida, resulting in tens of millions of gallons of spilled wastewater and reclaimed water. This released hazardous materials into the environment, which added to the public health dangers while the region was recovering from the storm.
Recovery from these types of outages is not as simple as turning the water facilities back on. Even short-term facility outages can result in unsafe water, requiring boil notices and other emergency measures.
Untreated sewage spilled into waterways during Hurricane Sandy
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy demonstrated just how much storms can undermine water and wastewater plants and create health hazards. The hurricane damaged numerous treatment plants and pumping stations, according to a Climate Central report.
As a result of the damage to the plants, untreated sewage flowed into local waterways for weeks, creating health hazards and environmental risks. New York City said it had six sewage spills larger than 100 million gallons, and 28 larger than 1 million gallons.
Microgrids provide renewable energy and resilience
As the effects of climate change continue, operators of water and wastewater facilities are seeking a more diverse portfolio of energy resources and energy resilience.
“As we continue to see greater demand from the grid with the energy transition, critical facilities like wastewater treatment plants are looking to modernize and build reliability into their operations,” said Silva. Microgrids allow operators to use a power mix of utility power and renewable energy.
“Critical facilities have seen that a single source of power is not sustainable for long-term resilient operations,” Silva said.
