Benchmarking resource efficiency in wastewater treatment plants: developing best practices

Energy and water are inextricably linked global resources which are under stress; water is required to generate electricity, and energy is required to purify water. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are an integral part of the water resources chain. Individual plants operate continually and are subject to a number of pressures (e.g. population changes, varying influent due to storm water, more stringent requirements for WWTP managers to meet discharge limits etc.) making the implementation of resource efficiencies uniquely challenging. Implementing efficiencies in WWTPs requires robust benchmarking and key performance indicator (KPI) tools, in order to implement more effective control, and identify opportunities for improvement. In Ireland, and internationally, these challenges have long been recognised, therefore a great deal of attention is focused on developing benchmarking tools suitable for the wastewater sector. This study presents a unique benchmarking system that enables WWTP managers and engineers isolate where and how resources are used and identify potential resource consumption mitigation measures within WWTPs. A unique and critical element of this benchmarking system is a tool (KPIAdvisor) that enables stakeholders to easily (i) assess the current level and accuracy of data collection undertaken at a WWTP; (ii) decide whether opting into a benchmarking system would be feasible based on the level of data collection onsite; (iii) identify data sources which may require corrective action prior to the adoption of a benchmarking system. KPIAdvisor automatically informs the construction and customisation of a KPI calculation and reporting tool (KPICalc) in order to ensure its applicability in a wide variety of WWTPs. This feature ensures that KPICalc users will not be presented with modules which are irrelevant, and streamlines data entry, thus increasing the toolkit’s usability. As part of the resource benchmarking system, KPIAdvisor enables resource efficiencies to be identified with ease, owing to the automated customisation of the benchmarking system achieved from KPIAdvisor output