With the cost of other fuels spiking, people at the city's sewer treatment plant can't help but feel a bit self- congratulatory these days.

Soon, they'll flip the switch on the city's latest methane- powered generator, a machine that produces electricity by burning gases produced during the biological breakdown of sewage.

The equipment, which replaces an older methane-powered generator in use since 1991, is expected to produce 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year -- the equivalent needed to serve about 275 homes, says Guy Graham, the city's wastewater services manager.

"It's pretty straightforward -- you take the sewage, you treat it, you burn the gas, and you get electricity," he says. "It's cool."

It is also expected to save the city at least $183,000 in energy costs annually, Graham says.

Graham expects the $1.1 million 400-kilowatt generator to go online by mid-October and cover about half of the wastewater treatment facility's electrical needs. That facility processes about 12 million gallons of wastewater a day, serving about 100,000 customers in Gresham, Fairview and Wood Village.

Before the advent of methane "co-generation," which began showing up at treatment facilities and methane-producing landfills in the 1990s, gases that built up were burned off as a useless byproduct. Now, Graham says, they are being harnessed as "green energy."

The new system's eight-cylinder engine is much more fuel- efficient than the old one, he said, and unlike the old one, it will continue to run when the power goes out. It can run on natural gas if needed. The city managed to recoup $5,000 by selling the old generator, which had started to break down, Graham said.

"We should be able to utilize better than 80 percent of our gas," Graham said, adding that the system should be in use almost continuously.

The system is designed and built by California Power Partners Inc. Part of its cost is covered by a $82,379 grant from the Energy Trust of Oregon for renewable resource projects and a $270,000 business energy tax credit from the Oregon Department of Energy.

"Project expected to pay for itself," said the headline.

While paying for themselves isn't necessarily make-or-break for most things in life, neither is it a bad idea — for personal investment or for business and for government spending.

In this case, the headline on Thursday's front page applied to a plan to install an electricity co-generation system at the city's new Wastewater Treatment Plant.

At a marathon meeting Tuesday night, city commissioners authorized issuance of $5 million in revenue bonds to convert methane gas from the treatment process into electricity. A key component of the overall project will be extending sewer service to the Agri-Business Park north of town, site of the International Malting Co. plant.

According to city officials, the project will pay off in at least three different ways: new revenue from sewer-service charges paid by IMC and, eventually, other industries in the Agri-Business Park; savings in natural gas costs for heating the sewer-treatment plant; and savings in electricity costs for the city.

As we said last year when the proposal surfaced, we admit to being suckers for things that save money for taxpayers and use unwanted materials in the process.

In that context, there's not much to dislike in the project.

If there's a caveat, it might be that this is the same government entity that said the Wave Rider feature at Mitchell Pool and the new parking garage downtown would pay for themselves.

Eventually they probably will, and in the meantime they fall in the "amenities" category — things that make life in Great Falls better for all who use them.

It's also worth noting that those two city investments both are subject to market fluctuations — weather in the case of the Wave Rider, and downtown business activity in the case of the garage.

The Wastewater Treatment Plant is established, and its market is ... well, not to put too fine a point on it, there will be a need for sewage treatment and plenty of raw material for co-generation as long as there are people in Great Falls.

In fact, when IMC comes online this spring, it will increase the flow of those raw materials by 11 to 13 percent.

In the co-gen system, an internal-combustion generator will run on methane and other digester gases. System exhaust will heat the building as well as water for the digester.

And it's not as if the city of Great Falls will be reinventing the wheel.

The feasibility study was done by the huge, Houston-based company that operates the treatment plant and has installed co-generation systems elsewhere.

And Billings has operated one for 20 years, saving $60,000 a year or more for the city.

Great Falls officials said a primary reason for taking the step is to reduce dependence on outside utilities, but there's an ecological component too.

"Anytime you can take an existing natural resource like this and convert it to energy, it's a step in the right direction," said Coleen Balzarini, fiscal services director.

We agree.

Administrative offices and a data processing center will be housed in the new building, as well as a laboratory for blood analysis work and a pharmacy stocked with perishable medicine for filling prescriptions. An extended blackout could result in loss of medicines worth over $150,000. The CalPwr designed, supplied, and installed cogeneration system uses natural gas fueled microturbines to help Kaiser maintain low, stable energy costs and, in the event of a grid outage, will provide emergency electrical back-up for critical refrigeration, operational, and communications needs.

Cogeneration creates an onsite energy "ecosystem." Producing one type of energy, for instance, electricity, creates a by-product such as heat, which in turn is used to meet additional energy needs - hot water, heating and even cooling- through the use of other technologies.

"The rolling blackouts of the 1990s started us looking for an emergency back-up system that could keep critical equipment running," explained Kevin Long, Energy Manager for Kaiser Permanente. "Cogeneration offered us that, plus an opportunity to take control of our energy future while reducing costs," he said.

Modern cogeneration systems utilizing proven technologies, from microturbines to absorption chilling, maximize energy efficiency and lower operational costs by carefully matching both energy outputs - electricity and heat -- with a customer's overall energy use and needs. In addition, the ability to generate power onsite gives cogeneration customers a hedge against the reliability issues and rising prices associated with grid-delivered electricity.

Centered on four natural gas fired Capstone MicoTurbines operating as a single 240 kW generator, the Kaiser Permanente cogeneration plant is expected to reduce utility grid electricity consumption by at least two-thirds. Heat recovery from the cogeneration plant will provide 100 percent of the building's heating and hot water needs, further reducing its ongoing operational costs.

"Cogeneration is typically a quick-payback investment," according to Eric Johnson, Director of Engineering at Calpwr, especially when recovered heat is used to offset electricity usage. "Designing a system like this into a new building is an obvious choice for reducing ongoing operational costs, but retrofitting an existing facility is often cost effective, too," he added

By basing the system on multiple clean-burning Capstone MicroTurbines, Calpwr created a plant with redundant reliability, ultra low emissions and tremendous operating flexibility. A further build-out of the cogeneration system will add absorption cooling to produce 60-70 percent of the building's cooling needs. Absorption cooling systems use heat energy, rather than electric energy, to create chilled water for air conditioning.

About 30% of the project cost will be rebated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District as part of a statewide program to support the implementation of highly fuel efficient, low-emission distributed generation systems that reduce burden on the utility grid.

Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest private non-profit health systems in the country, serving over eight million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. California is the non-profit company's largest division, with more than 5 million members.

About California Power Partners

Headquartered in San Diego with regional offices in Los Angeles and Boston, Massachusetts, Calpwr (www.calpwr.com) offers turnkey energy systems and a full scope of services for enterprises and organizations seeking the efficiencies and independence of modern distributed cogeneration.

Ask most electrical contractors about the latest cogenerating technology—microturbines—and you’re likely to get silence, or possibly: “micro-what?” This technology, which has only been on the market a few years (Capstone Turbine’s C30 model was introduced in December 1998), may still be relatively unknown, but is poised to take off in the next decade in commercial, municipal and light industrial use.

These small generators are in use at more than 1,000 public and private facilities in the United States and Japan, largely because of their ability to create energy onsite that is cleaner and cheaper than utility-delivered power.

Microturbines are small combustion turbines that produce between 25kW and 250kW of power. Originally derived from aircraft auxiliary power units, today’s microturbines deliver 25 to 30 percent electrical efficiency and, when the exhaust is used for thermal applications, a total fuel efficiency of 80 percent or more. According to Department of Energy figures, the average fossil-fueled utility power plant is 33 percent efficient, but 5 to 10 points of that is lost just getting it to the end user.

Most, but not all, microturbines are single-stage, radial flow devices with high rotating speeds; 90,000 to 120,000 rpm. As with other gas turbines, fuel is injected, along with air, into a combustion chamber. The fuel-air mixture is ignited, generating gas pressure that spins a turbine extremely fast. The basic design includes a turbine wheel, a compressor wheel and a permanent-magnet generator, all connected to a central shaft. In the most popular models, that shaft is the only moving part in the entire system.

While microturbines can be used at a building for emergency power, their super-low-emission characteristics and design enable them to be operated 8 to 24 hours daily, cutting energy costs no matter what happens on the local power lines.

Capstone was the first to market commercial microturbine power systems. With more than 2,700 Capstone MicroTurbines shipped worldwide, they remain the most prominent maker. Competitors include Ingersoll-Rand (www.irco.com), which has a 70kW microturbine on the market and is working on fielding a 250kW model; and Britain-based Bowman (www.bowmanpower.com), which has an 80kW model marketed by Kohler (www.kohler.com) in the United States.

These microturbines also produce voluminous amounts exhaust that can reach 600 F—perfect for water heating and other thermal applications. Another nice feature of microturbines is their built-in capability to plug together a dozen or more units for higher capacity arrays. They can also be started, operated and monitored automatically and remotely.

Low maintenance

One advantage of the Capstone MicroTurbines is the absence of any liquid lubrication or coolants. The entire system is air-cooled, and the shaft, which is the only moving part, is supported by air bearings. As a result there is very little required maintenance. In fact, most maintenance involves only annual cleaning/replacement of air and fuel filters and even less frequent cleaning/replacement of minor parts.

Because there is no fluid, concerns about hazardous material handling, storage, replacement, disposal and leakage are eliminated. There is plenty of environmental incentive to use these new generators. For one thing, air pollution emissions of gas turbines are comparatively low. Most models running on propane or natural gas have NOX emissions less than 9 ppm. Carbon monoxide (CO) emissions are similarly low. Other alternative systems such as fuel cells and wind-energy systems have low or even no emissions but are also considerably more expensive than microturbines.

Other than those that use lower-cost microturbine energy to slash their utility bills, some other companies that have an interest in microturbines include businesses that require highly reliable power or dependable standby power, such as manufacturing and healthcare facilities. Numerous other facilities are showing an interest in cogeneration, such as hotels, retirement homes, supermarkets, manufacturing plants and office buildings with absorption cooling or dehumidification systems. Also, some utility companies use microturbines to boost localized generation capacity and on more remote grids. A couple hundred are even turning flare gases at landfills and sewage plants around the nation into near-zero-emission power and heat.

The installation of a microturbine itself is not much different than any gas generator. The variation often lies in the paperwork.

“The installation is rather simple,” said John Fielder, construction consultant for Calpwr (www.calpwr.com) and a former electrical contractor. “The challenge is integrating the output into the customer’s electrical system.”

Connecting to the utility grid can often mean working around a variety of regulations that vary from state to state. The greatest challenge for the contractor is finding an efficient way to connect the output back into the system within the utility regulations. Some state energy commissions, such as those in California, New York and Texas, have set up guidelines to keep utility regulations regarding microturbine installation uniform. “There’s not a lot of interest with the utilities to standardize requirements,” Fielder said.

“They have a circle-the-wagons mentality,” agreed Calpwr lead engineer Doug Price. He added that installing microturbines requires some experience working with the technology and with the utility companies. “After a couple of projects it goes very cleanly. But you have to learn it.” He added that the Capstone systems Calpwr installs are precertified to the statewide standards and the company offers technical support and can bring in a consultant for difficult installations.

Varying concerns

Regulations are necessary to prevent damage to equipment and ensure safety. But many of the 3,000 different power utilities in North America have their own rules and regulations about interconnection that predate inverter-based microturbines and other modern marvels of distributed generation.

Because of this, they generally insist that each of them be able to test the protective relaying functionality and other safety and operational characteristics. Most microturbines have all this safety and operational flexibility built in, but short of the UL 1741 interconnection standard, there is no existing nationwide set of rules and regulations.

There are various other concerns related to how and where to install microturbine units. Some units have no locks on them; therefore, it is generally recommended that they be enclosed in a secured environment to protect individuals from injury as well as protect the equipment from vandalism.

Some utilities may require a visible disconnect switch (despite redundant internal protective relays) in order to protect linemen and avoid any possibility of backfeed into a line during a grid outage. This would require that utility personnel have access to the microturbine. These are just a few rules that customers need to consider when dealing with the utility regulations. Noise levels, air permitting, gas and electric codes, and whether the unit will be used as a backup source are other factors.

The Kaiser Permanente medical office building in Elk Grove, Calif. recently installed a microturbine. The building now has the lowest total energy costs of any Kaiser facility in the nation. The cogeneration system uses natural gas fueled microturbines to help Kaiser maintain low, stable energy costs and, in the event of a grid outage, to provide emergency electrical back-up for refrigeration, operational and communications needs.

“The rolling blackouts of the 1990s started us looking for an emergency back-up system that could keep critical equipment running,” said Kevin Long, energy manager for Kaiser Permanente in a Calpwr press release. “Cogeneration offered us that, plus an opportunity to take control of our energy future while reducing costs.”

The Kaiser Permanente cogeneration plant is expected to reduce utility grid electricity consumption by at least two-thirds. Heat recovery from the cogeneration plant will provide all of the building’s heating and hot water needs, further reducing its operational costs. Total fuel efficiency of the array exceeds 70 percent.

Calpwr deployed four clean-burning Capstone MicroTurbines at Kaiser to create redundant reliability as well as low emissions and operating flexibility. And cooling capability is another benefit of the microturbine units. Ultimately the cogeneration system will add absorption cooling to produce up to 70 percent of the building’s cooling needs. Absorption cooling systems use exhaust heat energy, rather than electric energy, to create chilled water for air conditioning.

About 30 percent of the project cost will be rebated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District as part of a statewide program.

PALM SPRINGS -- It won’t make treating sewage any more appealing but two new electricity generators at the Palm Springs wastewater treatment plant are expected to cut energy costs and reduce air pollution from the plant.

A phalanx of local politicians, sewer plant operators and energy industry types gathered Wednesday on the lawn of the Palm Springs wastewater treatment plant and hailed the addition of the new, natural gas generators.

The generators are expected to reduce energy costs at the plant by $80,000 annually.

And -- except for the moment when a dedication plaque toppled onto Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden -- they focused on the economic and environmental benefits of using clean burning fuel to treat the city’s dirtiest water.

"They are clean, they use less power and are cheaper than alternative power sources," said James L. Good, regional vice president of municipal business development for USFilter, the company that operates the treatment plant.

The two new generators will provide about 40 percent of the plant’s electricity, enough to power about 100 homes.

They replace two diesel generators the plant had been using to subsidize the power it imports from the electric grid.

It’s part of a broader program by the South Coast Air Quality Management District to place clean-burning generators at wastewater treatment plants, hospitals, landfills and other sites around the Southland that use large amounts of power from pollution-emitting power plants.

"Those big plants produce as much waste heat as they do electrical power," said Martin Kay, AQMD’s program supervisor who spoke at the Palm Springs event.

According to AQMD, the program will eventually result in enough new electricity to power 7,600 homes.

The new Palm Springs generators are expected to produce 95 percent less ozone-forming pollution than the diesel generators they replace.

They use natural gas to produce power. And unlike utility-produced power or diesel generators, the new devices include heat exchangers that recycle heat from power production so it can be used for hot water.

"There is a lot of energy being wasted," Thomas Moore of California Power Partners said of massive, utility-built power plants that typically supply electricity.

"Whenever you drive by a big power plant what do you see? You see a big smoke stack. That is energy being wasted into the atmosphere," said Moore, the chief executive officer of the firm that installed the two $60,000, micro-turbine generators.

After USFilter recoups the $125,000 it spent installing the generators, it will share future energy cost savings with the city, Good said.

Oden, whose city is facing a $3.8 million budget deficit, liked the idea of saving money.

He credited a $2 million annual operation agreement with USFilter for lowering costs at the treatment plant despite increases in energy prices since 1999, when the company took over.

"Do you think that is important for the city of Palm Springs," he asked during his remarks.

"Hello?

Saddleback College has turned to two gargantuan generators to light up the campus - and save millions of dollars.

The twin engines, flipped on last month, will produce 85 percent of the college's electricity and save an estimated $11.2 million over 15 years.

In the first year alone, the $382,000 in projected savings will allow the campus to save more than 100 classes that otherwise would have been axed because of the state's budget crisis.

Saddleback becomes one of a handful of California colleges or universities using cogeneration instead of relying solely on a utility.

Besides getting electricity from the 1,000-horsepower generators, the college collects the heat from them to warm up the campus.

"These kids can have the opportunity to attend additional classes because of this," said John Ozurovich, Saddleback's director of facilities.

The behemoths, plopped in a cinderblock maintenance building, never stop running. And, in a sense, never stop printing money.

Saddleback College turned on the generators last month to light up the campus - and save an estimated $11.2 million over 15 years.

Saddleback plans to make about 85 percent of its electricity and buy the other 15 percent from San Diego Gas & Electric.

The generators are producing more than electricity.

Saddleback's president, Dixie Bullock, said the first-year projected savings of $382,000 mean the college won't have to cut more than 100 classes in lean economic times caused by the state's budget crisis.

"We are able to maintain the number of classes we have had - which is a real luxury these days," Bullock said.

The college is using decades-old technology called cogeneration. Not only do the generators, which run on natural gas, make electricity, their heat warms up the campus as well. SeaWorld San Diego and an Irvine hotel use "co-gen," and Knott's Berry Farm will go online within a month.

BATTLING HIGH COST OF ELECTRICITY

None of the county's eight other community colleges has gone to cogeneration. Chapman University, the University of California, Irvine, and California State University, Fullerton, haven't either.

"It is very uncommon for colleges and universities to use a co-gen facility," said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. "Quite a number of universities have backup generation, so if there is a power shortage and they are about to experience a blackout, they can provide their own power," Alexander said. "But those are emergency backup systems."

Saddleback officials cooked up the idea during the 2000-01 energy crisis. At the time, San Diego Gas & Electric had nominated the college for an award for its aggressive conservation efforts - all the while increasing Saddleback's bills by 300 percent.

"It was never as attractive as it is now because the payback is more instant," said John Ozurovich, the school's director of facilities. "The other reason we haven't done it before is because we didn't have to. The rolling blackouts and stuff - it really woke us up. (We have) to be self-sufficient."

In December, a construction crew began installing Saddleback's $5 million system. It finished June 1. Testing followed until June 16 - when the college went full time with the generators.

Each 1,000-horsepower Waukesha engine is 18 feet long, 6 feet wide and 12 feet tall. The motors propel flywheels that create electricity.

The orange machines produce 75 percent of campus electricity needs during peak hours, with a computer determining how much needs to be pulled in from San Diego Gas & Electric. During off-peak hours and generally in the winters, the generators will create all of the electricity. The ledgers will treat Saddleback well, Ozurovich said. If the college's generator and electricity costs are more than what it had been paying for electricity, the company that installed the system, Kinetics, by contract must cover the amount. Of course, the two generators produce emissions that the campus didn't have before. But, Ozurovich said, those emissions would just have been produced elsewhere
- by other generators - though not on campus.

OTHERS MAY FOLLOW SUIT

Other campuses may join Saddleback with cogeneration.

UC Irvine is studying the technology. Santa Ana and Orange Coast community colleges intend to.

"At first blush, it definitely looks like something one should look at," said Bob Partridge, an assistant vice chancellor for the Rancho Santiago Community College District, which includes the Santa Ana and Santiago Canyon campuses.

But, Partridge said, each campus' circumstances could play into whether cogeneration works, such as space requirements, the total wattage required and how the generators are hooked into the school's electrical system. The district explored cogeneration a couple of years ago and found "it was just not cost-effective," he said. Nearby Cerritos Community College in Norwalk and California State University, Long Beach, are among nearly 20 campuses statewide that employ some form of cogeneration.

And at Saddleback, Ozurovich isn't done.

If the internal-combustion engines receive a passing grade in six months as expected, Ozurovich will go to the district's board of trustees and propose a third generator - allowing Saddleback to produce all of its electricity.

Ozurovich's office sits above the basement full of pipes, boilers, computer-controlled units and the orange generators. He visits them a couple of times a day.

"When I go by, I think of a cash register," he said. "We're making money. It's a good feeling to be able to contribute to the college."