Greentech Lead America: Pepco Energy Services, a
subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, has signed an agreement with the District of
Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water), a drinking water and wastewater
collection and treatment authority, to design, build and operate a Combined
Heat and Power (CHP) plant at DC Water’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater
Treatment Plant (AWTP).
The Blue Plains AWTP is the largest advanced wastewater
treatment facility in the world, serving 725 square miles of DC, Maryland and
Virginia and has a capacity of 370 million gallons per day. The project is
valued approximately $170 million. Construction will begin in August and will
be completed in December 2014.
Pepco Energy Services will design and build the CHP
project for $81 million. It will be the first in North America to use biogas
from an AWTP facility. The CHP project will produce at least 14 MW of electric
power that will meet 30 percent of the AWTP’s average power demand.
“By recycling biogas, we will be able to create
electricity and steam to help power the Blue Plains AWTP. This is an extremely
efficient way to produce energy and we are excited to be a part of DC Water’s
ground breaking AWTP project,” said John Huffman, president and CEO of Pepco
Energy Services.
The CHP facility will help DC Water reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by approximately 40 percent, as well as reduce the risk of increased
disposal costs and provide a hedge against increases in future power costs.
Pepco Energy Services will also provide on-site
operations and maintenance services valued at more than $89 million over the
15-year contract term.
The thermal hydrolysis process uses high-pressure steam
from the CHP plant to increase the rate of biogas production and neutralize
contaminants in waste streams.
The CHP plant will also include three Solar Mercury 50
low-nitrogen oxide gas turbines, digester gas cleaning and compression
equipment, heat recovery steam generators, duct burners, a backup boiler,
electrical equipment needed to operate in parallel with the utility grid and
ancillary systems, including water treatment and process control systems.
Recently,
Pepco Energy Services signed a $5.3 million deal to implement a comprehensive
energy savings performance contract project for Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University in Blacksburg, Va.