Microgrids and Resiliency Planning for Water and Wastewater Treatment

Protecting and Preparing Plants (W/WWTPs) Against Major Power Outages

June 6-7, 2023 | Online :: Central Time

0623-water-microgrids-resiliency

Major power outages have the potential to create catastrophic interruptions in municipal water and wastewater treatment plants operations, supply, and treatment capabilities. Fundamental principles of resiliency and reliability can be integrated into these plants to mitigate risk and provide valuation and reduced economic costs. Different electricity supply models for water and wastewater treatment plants will be presented, including external supplied power and internally supplied power, as well as microgrids that are grid-connected, islanded, and remote.  The principles of resiliency risk and valuation will be overlaid upon geographic and operational variations, enabling participants to properly place their facilities into a risk management framework. Real world case studies of catastrophic power loss impacting W/WWTP’s will be presented, specifically incidents caused by extreme weather events, cyberattacks, technical failures, human error, and other key factors.

The course will next shift from a conceptual conversation into solution mode, providing participants with tactics and strategies for mitigating the impact of major power loss. These solutions and tools include: 

• Different types of electricity procurement approaches
• Development of integrated microgrids, on-site power sources and storage resources
• Software and Monitoring Tools for managing resiliency and cybersecurity risk
• Case studies to demonstrate applicability and efficacy of different resilience strategies

The course will also showcase how protecting a water and wastewater treatment plant against major power outages can align with decarbonization strategies and support sustainability goals.

Learning Objectives and Course Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to successfully:

• Discuss where their plant has the greatest operational risk from major power shut-offs
• Review their connection to the electricity grid, their electricity costs, and their electricity load profile
• Assess their current electricity supply, their utility rate tariff, their electricity use intensity, and the carbon intensity of their grid supplied electricity
• Identify different types of power outages and resources for identifying outage status updates
• Develop a high-level economic cost valuation for different power outage scenarios to be used for decision-making
• Adopt load management strategies to preserve critical operations
• Assess different on-site technologies to reduce risk from power outages with particular focus on grid-connected microgrids
• Identify the major sources of resiliency risk in their geographic area and develop tailored strategies for protecting their plant from these risks
• Develop tactical and strategic plans for their facilities to address different types and durations of power outage scenarios
• Discuss the proliferation of cyberattacks on water and wastewater treatment plants in the past 10 years and identify priorities for hardening their control and operating systems to mitigate cyber risk
• Assess and apply learnings from real-world examples of water and wastewater treatment plants impacted by catastrophic failure and use these examples to develop mitigation plans for their plants
• Review the relationship between resiliency and decarbonization
• Discuss how climate change is negatively impacting electric grid resiliency and the associated risk to water and wastewater treatment plants operations

Tuesday, June 6, 2023 : Central Time

 

Framework and Building Blocks for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants Resiliency Introduction and Overview

• Interplay between Water Use and Energy Use
• Most Common Types of Water Distribution Plants (WDP) and Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP)
• Electricity: Resiliency, Reliability, and the Impact on Critical Infrastructure
• Electric Power and its role in W/WWTP Facility Operation
• Key Federal Regulations and Guidelines Impacting W/WWTPs
  • Clean Water Act
  • Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFA)-2014
  • America Water Infrastructure Act of 1918
  • Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
  • National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)

The Drivers of Power Outages and their impact on Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants

• Planned Outages, Unplanned Outages, Rolling Blackouts, Public Safety Power Shut-Offs (PSPSs)
• Major Sources of Resiliency Risk & Variation by W/WWTP Geography and Operations Mode
• A Risk Hierarchy and Framework for viewing W/WWTP Operations
• Valuing Resiliency at a W/WWTP

Tactics for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operators to Address Major Power Loss and Strategies for Eliminating These Events

• Real World Case Studies of Catastrophic Power Loss at W/WWTPs
  • Houston, Texas Power Interruption to Drinking Water Distribution System, Hurricane Uri (2021)
  • North Carolina, Substation Sabotage and December 2022 Freeze and impacts on W/WWTPs
  • State of Texas “Deep Freeze”, Power Outage and related water supply interruption
  • Polk County Florida, Hurricane Ian caused loss of power to one-third of water utility pumping stations
  • Florida
  • California
  • New England
  • Midwest
• Tactical Responses to Power Outages

Microgrids and other Large Scale On-Site Approaches to Enhancing Resiliency

• Microgrids and Other Large-scale Solutions for Reducing Power Outage Risk
• Procuring Electricity with an Eye towards Resiliency

12:30 -1:00 p.m. :: Lunch Break  

Microgrids and Other Large Scale On-Site Approaches to Enhancing Resiliency (Continued)

 

Vulnerability of W/WWTPs to Cyberattacks

• Root Causes for Cyberattacks and the Implications for W/WWTPs
• Real World Incidents at U.S. W/WWTPs
• The Overlapping Cyber Risk between Energy Assets and W/WWTP Operating Assets
• Baseline Cybersecurity Measures for W/WWTPs

End of Day Summary and Refresher Poll

 

Wednesday, June 7, 2023 : Central Time

 

Overcoming Major Power Outages to Maintain Critical Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operations

1. Software Tools for Energy Management, Monitoring, Risk Management, Outage Tracking, and Resiliency
2. Applying Learnings to Different Catastrophic Power Loss Scenarios
3. When a Microgrid may be a “Must Have”
4. Problem Sets and Solution Solving

Water Management, Climate Change, and Resiliency

1. The Water Energy Nexus between Power Generation and Water Treatment
2. Water Management and its linkage to Decarbonization and Sustainable Development Goals
3. How Climate Change Is Impacting Resiliency of Critical Infrastructure

Conclusions and Key Takeaways

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Glossary and Acronyms
• Water and Wastewater Industry Associations
• Electricity Reliability Standard Setting Agencies
• Listing of Planned and Operational W/WWTP Renewable Energy Microgrids
• Other References and Relevant Resources

Jim Dodenhoff, Principal, Silent Running

Jim works on challenging new opportunities to equitably transform the electricity grid from the centralized system of the past to a distributed model of the future. The objectives of this work are to reduce carbon emissions and enhance energy resiliency. This is accomplished through the development of hybrid renewable energy plants (i.e. microgrids) and energy efficiency projects.

Jim is an energy and sustainability expert with over 25 years of successful experience in the energy and environmental services industry. He has held leadership, business development, management, and consultative roles with a broad group of market participants including smart energy software/hardware solution providers, energy/advisory consulting firms, electric utilities, recycled product manufacturers and environmental service firms.

Jim is a Principal at Silent Running, where the organization offers comprehensive vertical industry solutions as well as individual business solutions, training for organizations and teams, and research to support energy-related topics and related content. Providing clean energy and sustainability advisory, consulting, and development services to for-profit and non-profit firms to create competitive advantage. Specialty areas include microgrid development, commercial, industrial, and institutional energy efficiency, clean energy finance, water-energy nexus projects, business model and business plan development, enterprise-wide sustainability initiatives, and facility resiliency and related emergency design and planning.

We will be using Microsoft Teams to facilitate your participation in the upcoming event. You do not need to have an existing Teams account in order to participate in the broadcast – the course will play in your browser and you will have the option of using a microphone to speak with the room and ask questions, or type any questions in via the chat window and our on-site representative will relay your question to the instructor.

• IMPORTANT NOTE: After November 30 you will not be able to join a Teams meeting using Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft recommends downloading and installing the Teams app if possible. You may also use the Edge browser or Chrome.
• You will receive a meeting invitation will include a link to join the meeting.
• Separate meeting invitations will be sent for the morning and afternoon sessions of the course.
  • You will need to join the appropriate meeting at the appropriate time.
• If you are using a microphone, please ensure that it is muted until such time as you need to ask a question.
• The remote meeting connection will be open approximately 30 minutes before the start of the course. We encourage you to connect as early as possible in case you experience any unforeseen problems.

Please Note: This event is being conducted entirely online. All attendees will connect and attend from their computer, one connection per purchase. For details please see our FAQ

If you are unable to attend at the scheduled date and time, we make recordings available to all registrants for three business days after the event

REGISTER NOW FOR THIS EVENT:

Microgrids and Resiliency Planning for Water and Wastewater Treatment

June 6-7, 2023 | Online

Your registration may be transferred to a member of your organization up to 24 hours in advance of the event. Cancellations must be received on or before May 05, 2023 in order to be refunded and will be subject to a US $195.00 processing fee per registrant. No refunds will be made after this date. Cancellations received after this date will create a credit of the tuition (less processing fee) good toward any other EUCI event. This credit will be good for six months from the cancellation date. In the event of non-attendance, all registration fees will be forfeited. In case of conference cancellation, EUCIs liability is limited to refund of the event registration fee only. For more information regarding administrative policies, such as complaints and refunds, please contact our offices at 303-770-8800

Credits

EUCI is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.

EUCI is authorized by IACET to offer 1.0 CEUs for this event

 

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Upon successful completion of this event, program participants interested in receiving CPE credits will receive a certificate of completion.

Course CPE Credits: 12.0
There is no prerequisite for this Course.
Program field of study: Specialized Knowledge
Program Level: Basic
Delivery Method: Group Internet Based
Advanced Preparation: None

EUCI is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its web site: www.nasbaregistry.org

 

Who Should Attend

• Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility Managers owned and operated by government entities AND investor-owned entities
• Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Safety Engineers
• Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Energy Engineers
• Cybersecurity Personnel
• Emergency Management Planners