Just Add Sunshine
A look at the first water utility in the nation able to run entirely off solar energy
“We were pioneering a new system that had never been built,” says Terry Lyons, general manager for the Idyllwild Water District, describing its decision to switch to solar power. “We are the first of its kind in the world, actually, that uses this technology that interfaces everything we have—even our largest pump, which is only a 15-horsepower pump.”
The Idyllwild Water District is nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains, about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, CA. In November 2005, the district became the first water utility in the United States able to run its entire facility with solar power. Relying on a 44.1-kW solar array provided by WorldWater & Power Corp., the district runs a 57-horsepower pumping system, including a water filtration plant and six primary wells.
According to Lyons, the impetus behind the project was, in part, five years of drought and rampant bark beetle infestations in the surrounding San Bernardino National Forest. These conditions resulted in the death of more than 80% of the forest’s pine trees. As unlikely as it seems, thousands of dead and dying trees pose a significant threat to an area’s energy supply.
“We have a lot of pine trees up here that have literally been taken down,” explains Lyons. “We’ve got about 6,000 on this existing property. With the wind conditions getting up to 40 miles an hour or higher, Edison gave us five, 10 minutes and would literally shut us off without power.”
According to Lyons, Southern California Edison viewed the weakened trees and fierce winds as a lethal combination. By tearing limbs from trees and toppling trunks, the area’s 40-mile-per-hour gusts can cause extensive damage to the utility’s power lines, causing mass power outages and posing a significant fire hazard.
“They were afraid that trees, without any strength in their roots, would fall over on their transmission lines, which they did. That was one main reason for looking at alternate power,” says Lyons.
Opportunity Rears Its Head
Prior to installing solar panels, the district depended on onsite diesel generators to supplement disruptions in service. According to the American Lung Association, diesel generators create more air pollution per megawatt of energy than traditional power plants. In California, diesel generators can be used only as emergency backup during a loss of power. Rolling blackouts during the state’s energy crisis in 2001 increased dependence on diesel generators. The resulting rise in air pollution prompted the California Air Resources Board to create new emission standards and limitations on the use of diesel. As a result, Lyons felt relying on those older generators for backup did not adequately protect the district during power outages.
“Our diesel engines were becoming older,” says Lyons, “and with the air-quality issues, they were limited to how much operation you could have. Two to three hours a day does not get you out of an emergency or crisis, so that didn’t leave too many options.”
 |
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Amid California's San Jacinto Mountains, the Idyllwild Water District relies on a 44.1-kW solar array, as well as runs a 57-hp pumping system with a water filtration plant and six primary wells. |
After convincing the district’s water board to commit to solar power, Lyons set about finding ways to fund the project. He began researching the types of aid available to utilities interested in renewable energy sources. The search revealed one positive result of the California energy crisis: a renewed commitment to exploring alternative energies with the funding to back it up. Lyons initially applied to the California Energy Commission (CEC), but it no longer had funds available. Following a suggestion by the commission, Lyons contacted Southern California Edison.
“Southern California Edison had funding—about $23 million,” Lyons says, “and not very many people knew about it. I put an application in, and we got approved for roughly $155,000.”
Southern California Edison’s $155,000 award covered approximately half of the costs of the project. According to Lyons, the district paid for the remaining half in cash, which the utility expects to eventually recoup via increased revenue, savings, and additional state incentives.
“We figure a 10- to 12-year payoff period,” continues Lyons, “and what changes that is primarily the Edison rates. If Edison goes beyond 3% a year on inflation, then we will definitely get a faster payback on it. We figure it at about 3% would take us out to 12 years, and if they have a 20% increase or 15% increase, it will just pay it off quicker.”
Renewable energy credits (RECs) are also a large part of the project’s financing portfolio. As part of the effort to promote the use of renewable energy in the state, in 1998 the California Energy Commission created the Renewable Energy Program. The program instituted the use of RECs, credits granted when a solar panel power system generates excess energy. The utility can sell back that unused power onto the grid. Idyllwild earns $0.10 for every extra kilowatt by selling its RECs to an industrial company in New Jersey.
Lyons outlines the economic benefits associated with using solar energy. “Essentially what it comes down to,” he says, “is that our annual power cost for operating those wells at Foster Lake and the treatment plant and the emergency booster tie that we have with Pine Cove Water District runs a little over $10K a year. With what we get for credits and what we get for the RECs, we’re actually at $15K a year, so we’re actually $5K ahead. It’s actually revenue.”
To get the solar power idea off the ground, Lyons needed a project partner. WorldWater & Power Corp. needed a forward-looking utility willing to try a new approach to solar power. The timing was perfect.
“I was wondering why, after five years of this magic breakthrough, nobody was touching them, and it was a question of the funding,” says Lyons.
 |
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Solar power provides backup far superior to diesel generators during an outage. |
Headquartered in Pennington, NJ, WorldWater & Power Corp. is an international solar engineering and water management company that specializes in developing high-powered solar technology for a variety of industries in California and New Jersey, including agricultural, food processing, refrigeration, and water utilities. Seeing an opportunity in the incentives offered by California during the energy crisis, WorldWater set about promoting its unique solar systems, which are capable of using solar energy to power structures and equipment normally dependent on local electric grids or diesel generators. WorldWater is known for its patented AquaMax solar electric system, capable of generating enough power to run a 600-horsepower engine. The development of AquaMax made WorldWater the first company in the world able to develop large-scale, solar-electric pumping systems.
Chris Sherring, WorldWater’s project manager, details how the two entities began working together. “We’d been talking to a number of water utilities about doing this, including a water utility in Joshua basin,” he says. “Terry Lyons was in fact the general manager of the facility out in Joshua. So that’s how we kind of came to it.”
Lyons elaborates, “They were working on their own. They had proven this in the shop, so to speak, but had never been able to get into a public agency. I’d been in touch with them for five years, and we had a dozen meetings throughout that time.”
WorldWater appeared to be offering a chance that could not be missed, and Lyons knew now was the time to pursue the project. “There wasn’t any funding at the time, until California got into an electrical crisis, and that just brought everybody in for extra money,” he says.
As the local electric utility, Southern California Edison ultimately lent a helping hand, and Lyons seized the opportunity. “Edison came in, the CEC came in, and we just said, ‘Hey, if we’re going do it, now is the time. This is the best time to do it because we’ve got people picking up half the cost.’ You know, solar was still expensive,” Lyons adds, “and public agencies don’t like to take risks. Well, we kind of broke that tie. We decided to take the risk.”
After reviewing the location of the Idyllwild Water District, WorldWater knew that it had found the perfect match. “They have a good solar insolation,” explains Sherring, “which is the solar input at that location. Together with the rebate from the local utility, the economics make perfect sense: to use solar to generate some of their electricity.”
Lyons also believes that the locations available to the district for solar panel installation made the project that much more attractive. “We didn’t encounter any space problems,” he says. “We own property up at Dutch Flats; we own property at Foster Lake; all told it’s about 500 acres. We didn’t have any problem with space.”
Ultimately, the district’s available land will allow for future expansion of the solar power system. “Down the Dutch Flat area is where we have the project,” explains Lyons, “and it’s almost like a wetland—grassy, wide open. We could probably put 30 more of these on that property to add to the 255 panels we have now.”
The solar power system installed at Idyllwild addresses many of the challenges that have thwarted widespread use of solar energy in the past. Cost and space are not the only obstacles to be overcome. Until the Idyllwild project, solar power played only a supporting role at most large-scale facilities because of its relatively low output potential.
According to Sherring, Idyllwild’s solar power system “produces a relatively high output on an annual basis in kilowatt-hours: 45 kilowatts’ worth of installed capacity as DC power capacity. We then use an inverter that converts from the DC to AC.”
 |
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Idyllwild now has the ability to switch between solar power and power from the electric company. |
 |
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Drought conditions contributed to the death of 80% of the San Bernardino National Forest. |
Upon completion of the conversion from DC to AC power, the electricity supplied by the solar panels can power the entire facility. Says Sherring, “We are driving—I think I am right in saying—a total of about seven to 10 different motors and pumps, filters—all of them purely driven by sun in the absence of the grid.
“You can imagine that the solar power input from the sun is a variable,” he explains. “We don’t know if it’s going to be bright and sunny in the morning or if a cloud might come over. It’s a variable resource, and we have a unique technology which enables us to couple that variable resource with motors and pumps and still manage to drive them even in the absence of grid power.”
“What makes this thing unique,” states Lyons, “is the blending, which is a patent WorldWater has with Edison.” He outlines how the blending actually works: “What our systems do is essentially check 1,000 times per second, or thereabouts, how much solar power is available, and then they modify the speed or the frequency of which they drive the pump or the motor by something called a ‘variable-speed drive’ to enable us to drive all of these motors and pumps.
“They may drive fractionally slower than they would if they were on full power,” he explains, “but nonetheless they drive and they provide water to the community. So that’s a unique technology that WorldWater has. It’s patented and no one else in the world can do that.”
Can’t Have Too Many Options The ability to switch between power supplied by the electric company and the solar panel system contributes to the significance of the Idyllwild project.
“The client—in this case the Idyllwild water facility—doesn’t have to do anything,” says Sherring, “and no one else in the world can do that, and this is very definitely the first water utility anywhere in the world that has this system applied to its operation.”
The district did face some challenges when it began to operate on power supplied by WorldWater’s system. For example, California power utilities require automatic disconnection from the grid in the event of a blackout, leaving most water utilities without power.
“When the grid collapses or is not available,” says Sherring, “the solar systems are obliged to disconnect from the grid so that they don’t accidentally electrocute someone who is trying fix the grid lines.”
Idyllwild complies with the regulation to cut off from the main power grid, but its solar system allows it to continue to operate. “Our systems do that because they’re required to,” says Sherring, “but our systems then continue to power in this case the pumps, the filters, the computers—you name it—all of the various systems of the water utility just using solar power alone. When the grid comes back again, the systems seamlessly switch over to combining grid power and solar power to maximize the output.”
 |
| Plans from WorldWater & Power Corp. |
Initially, the project worked perfectly with the district’s various pumps and filtration systems. For WorldWater, the large scale of the project did not pose a problem, but the multiple equipment installations were a challenge.
“We’ve put in very large systems for irrigation and for refrigeration,” says Sherring, “but this is the first time we’ve put together as many pumps and motors in one system. Not only are we driving pumps and motors and filters; we also had to deal with other requirements for powering computers and various gear.”
According to Lyons, the interface between the utility’s equipment and its computer system became problematic when the district attempted to utilize the newly installed solar power system to meet all of its energy needs.
“We had some systems that didn’t seem to want to accept that blending, and we had to put in some different controls for our pumps and wells. We had some old mercury controls, and they just didn’t seem to want to respond to that blending, so we had to modify those.”
In addition to coordinating all of the utility’s heavy machinery, according to Sherring, WorldWater also faced the daunting task of powering the plant’s computer system. “For example,” he says, “there is a set of logic that tells the system which well to pump from and which filter to run based on what they’ve been doing lately or the demand, and that system needs to be run from a separate power source.”
Sherring feels the company’s ultimate success resulted from “understanding the interrelationship between the various parts of the process and designing that into our system. There were a lot of firsts here.”
Initially, those other systems were run on power supplied by Edison, but the results convinced Lyons to push for an entirely solar-based system. The electricity delivered by Edison surged and ebbed, creating peaks and valleys that interfered with the operation of Idyllwild’s sensitive computer-based systems.
“We had some delays in some of the controls because we kept getting dirty power,” says Lyons, “and didn’t understand what was causing it, so that probably took us three months to figure out.
“Believe it or not, what people do not understand about power is you can get dirty power from Edison,” he explains, “and that’s what we were getting from Edison: dirty power that needed to be filtered.”
WorldWater fixed the problem by adding another layer of technological assistance. Once WorldWater installed its sign wave equipment, all the glitches disappeared. According to Lyons, the effect was immediate. “This sign wave equipment was actually installed in December,” he says, “and just smoothed everything out and gave us clean power. Once we put the sign wave equipment in, it just ran like a clock. It still does.”
Sherring states that the sign wave equipment contributes significantly to the Idyllwild project. “It really is exceedingly sophisticated in terms of what it’s doing with solar energy—it’s really a kind of landmark installation—and we’re fortunate to have this technology and have a forward-looking organization like Idyllwild to take this on. It took a little while to come up with the best approach,” he says, “but it has moved the technology forward in a significant way.”
Despite those initial adjustments, Lyons is delighted with the overall performance of WorldWater’s solar system. “Most solar companies—all solar companies with the exception of WorldWater—operate up to a 5-horsepower motor, but nobody can operate over 5 horsepower,” he says. WorldWater is “ the only company in the world that can operate motors up to 600 horsepower right across the line.
 |
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Breaking ground for solar at the Forest Lake/Dutch Flats site |
“So, let me give you an example,” continues Lyons. “If we lost power during an earthquake up here, we’re able to run that entire system every day as long as we’ve got sunshine. You know, as long as that is available, we can operate everything 100% on solar. No other company can do that.
“We have several factors that make this thing a ‘win win’ situation,” he says. “We run the meter backwards, of course, and we run power back into Edison. We don’t sell the power; it’s a credit. What we do is bank the power with Edison.”
The banking of power credits becomes significant during the overcast or rainy days that can interfere with the effectiveness of the solar panel. According to Sherring, “in the event that the grid isn’t available, which happens from time to time in these more distant parts of California, the solar system is quite capable, of course, of powering all their pumps and filters such as they can provide water to their community, even without the grid.”
By switching to solar power, the district anticipates operating a system able to reliably and efficiently deliver water to its customers, despite outside forces like disruptions in service or prohibitive costs. With the WorldWater solar power system, the district can run while disconnected from Edison’s power grid, and this makes Lyons confident about the district’s ability to consistently supply water to its customers.
“Operating Independently—That’s a Major Factor”
Fully operational since the start of the year, Idyllwild’s solar power system continues to operate as expected. The success of the blending technology in particular continues to demonstrate the increasing viability of solar as an alternate power source for major utilities and agencies across the nation.
“It’s a landmark installation,” says Sherring. “We’re delighted—obviously—to have the opportunity to work with this forward-looking organization. These are 25-year power stations, so they will be reaping the benefits for at least the next 25 years.” For a real-time view of electricity being generated by the panels, go to http://www.idyllwildwater.com/Solar.html.
In light of the project’s initial success, Lyons is optimistic about its future potential and sees many benefits in the district’s decision to switch to solar power. Financially, the district finds itself in an optimal position. “We’re literally having more banking than we’ll ever draw down on,” Lyons says, “and that is a plus.”
Using solar power also allows the district to manage the water facility more effectively. “Most districts won’t operate during the daytime because of the power costs,” explains Lyons, “but we can operate during the daytime and we can manage it—always see the system better because we can see if there’s any problems. You can’t see if there’s a problem at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning when most water companies are running through the night because of the power costs.
“At the end of 12 years, we’ll be out of the woods,” predicts Lyons. “We’ll have literally free power. From that point on we’ll be able to maintain water rates for quite a while because of the fact we’ve got our own control on power, and that’s one of the things that hurts most of the water districts and sewer districts: the cost of power. If you’re locked into that [paying for power], you don’t have much control over that. We do. We’re essentially independent now.”
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As for WorldWater, the future holds the possibility of many more water utilities following in Idyllwild’s footsteps. Sherring confirms that the company has “a number of other utilities we’re talking to. We also talk to wastewater facilities who have similar challenges.
“It’s unique. No one else can do this,” says Sherring. “We want to get the message out, and here’s a superb opportunity to showcase Idyllwild’s progressive approach. No doubt we’ll be looking to bring other clients by this facility in the future. We see a tremendous market for this type of technology for California and beyond.”
Author's Bio: Elizabeth Cutright is the Editor of Water Efficiency magazine.
November-December 2006
Just Add Sunshine
A look at the first water utility in the nation able to run entirely off solar energy
“We were pioneering a new system that had never been built,” says Terry Lyons, general manager for the Idyllwild Water District, describing its decision to switch to solar power. “We are the first of its kind in the world, actually, that uses this technology that interfaces everything we have—even our largest pump, which is only a 15-horsepower pump.”
The Idyllwild Water District is nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains, about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, CA. In November 2005, the district became the first water utility in the United States able to run its entire facility with solar power. Relying on a 44.1-kW solar array provided by WorldWater & Power Corp., the district runs a 57-horsepower pumping system, including a water filtration plant and six primary wells.
According to Lyons, the impetus behind the project was, in part, five years of drought and rampant bark beetle infestations in the surrounding San Bernardino National Forest. These conditions resulted in the death of more than 80% of the forest’s pine trees. As unlikely as it seems, thousands of dead and dying trees pose a significant threat to an area’s energy supply.
“We have a lot of pine trees up here that have literally been taken down,” explains Lyons. “We’ve got about 6,000 on this existing property. With the wind conditions getting up to 40 miles an hour or higher, Edison gave us five, 10 minutes and would literally shut us off without power.”
According to Lyons, Southern California Edison viewed the weakened trees and fierce winds as a lethal combination. By tearing limbs from trees and toppling trunks, the area’s 40-mile-per-hour gusts can cause extensive damage to the utility’s power lines, causing mass power outages and posing a significant fire hazard.
“They were afraid that trees, without any strength in their roots, would fall over on their transmission lines, which they did. That was one main reason for looking at alternate power,” says Lyons.
Opportunity Rears Its Head
Prior to installing solar panels, the district depended on onsite diesel generators to supplement disruptions in service. According to the American Lung Association, diesel generators create more air pollution per megawatt of energy than traditional power plants. In California, diesel generators can be used only as emergency backup during a loss of power. Rolling blackouts during the state’s energy crisis in 2001 increased dependence on diesel generators. The resulting rise in air pollution prompted the California Air Resources Board to create new emission standards and limitations on the use of diesel. As a result, Lyons felt relying on those older generators for backup did not adequately protect the district during power outages.
“Our diesel engines were becoming older,” says Lyons, “and with the air-quality issues, they were limited to how much operation you could have. Two to three hours a day does not get you out of an emergency or crisis, so that didn’t leave too many options.”
|
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Amid California's San Jacinto Mountains, the Idyllwild Water District relies on a 44.1-kW solar array, as well as runs a 57-hp pumping system with a water filtration plant and six primary wells. |
After convincing the district’s water board to commit to solar power, Lyons set about finding ways to fund the project. He began researching the types of aid available to utilities interested in renewable energy sources. The search revealed one positive result of the California energy crisis: a renewed commitment to exploring alternative energies with the funding to back it up. Lyons initially applied to the California Energy Commission (CEC), but it no longer had funds available. Following a suggestion by the commission, Lyons contacted Southern California Edison.
“Southern California Edison had funding—about $23 million,” Lyons says, “and not very many people knew about it. I put an application in, and we got approved for roughly $155,000.”
Southern California Edison’s $155,000 award covered approximately half of the costs of the project. According to Lyons, the district paid for the remaining half in cash, which the utility expects to eventually recoup via increased revenue, savings, and additional state incentives.
“We figure a 10- to 12-year payoff period,” continues Lyons, “and what changes that is primarily the Edison rates. If Edison goes beyond 3% a year on inflation, then we will definitely get a faster payback on it. We figure it at about 3% would take us out to 12 years, and if they have a 20% increase or 15% increase, it will just pay it off quicker.”
Renewable energy credits (RECs) are also a large part of the project’s financing portfolio. As part of the effort to promote the use of renewable energy in the state, in 1998 the California Energy Commission created the Renewable Energy Program. The program instituted the use of RECs, credits granted when a solar panel power system generates excess energy. The utility can sell back that unused power onto the grid. Idyllwild earns $0.10 for every extra kilowatt by selling its RECs to an industrial company in New Jersey.
Lyons outlines the economic benefits associated with using solar energy. “Essentially what it comes down to,” he says, “is that our annual power cost for operating those wells at Foster Lake and the treatment plant and the emergency booster tie that we have with Pine Cove Water District runs a little over $10K a year. With what we get for credits and what we get for the RECs, we’re actually at $15K a year, so we’re actually $5K ahead. It’s actually revenue.”
To get the solar power idea off the ground, Lyons needed a project partner. WorldWater & Power Corp. needed a forward-looking utility willing to try a new approach to solar power. The timing was perfect.
“I was wondering why, after five years of this magic breakthrough, nobody was touching them, and it was a question of the funding,” says Lyons.
|
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Solar power provides backup far superior to diesel generators during an outage. |
Headquartered in Pennington, NJ, WorldWater & Power Corp. is an international solar engineering and water management company that specializes in developing high-powered solar technology for a variety of industries in California and New Jersey, including agricultural, food processing, refrigeration, and water utilities. Seeing an opportunity in the incentives offered by California during the energy crisis, WorldWater set about promoting its unique solar systems, which are capable of using solar energy to power structures and equipment normally dependent on local electric grids or diesel generators. WorldWater is known for its patented AquaMax solar electric system, capable of generating enough power to run a 600-horsepower engine. The development of AquaMax made WorldWater the first company in the world able to develop large-scale, solar-electric pumping systems.
Chris Sherring, WorldWater’s project manager, details how the two entities began working together. “We’d been talking to a number of water utilities about doing this, including a water utility in Joshua basin,” he says. “Terry Lyons was in fact the general manager of the facility out in Joshua. So that’s how we kind of came to it.”
Lyons elaborates, “They were working on their own. They had proven this in the shop, so to speak, but had never been able to get into a public agency. I’d been in touch with them for five years, and we had a dozen meetings throughout that time.”
WorldWater appeared to be offering a chance that could not be missed, and Lyons knew now was the time to pursue the project. “There wasn’t any funding at the time, until California got into an electrical crisis, and that just brought everybody in for extra money,” he says.
As the local electric utility, Southern California Edison ultimately lent a helping hand, and Lyons seized the opportunity. “Edison came in, the CEC came in, and we just said, ‘Hey, if we’re going do it, now is the time. This is the best time to do it because we’ve got people picking up half the cost.’ You know, solar was still expensive,” Lyons adds, “and public agencies don’t like to take risks. Well, we kind of broke that tie. We decided to take the risk.”
After reviewing the location of the Idyllwild Water District, WorldWater knew that it had found the perfect match. “They have a good solar insolation,” explains Sherring, “which is the solar input at that location. Together with the rebate from the local utility, the economics make perfect sense: to use solar to generate some of their electricity.”
Lyons also believes that the locations available to the district for solar panel installation made the project that much more attractive. “We didn’t encounter any space problems,” he says. “We own property up at Dutch Flats; we own property at Foster Lake; all told it’s about 500 acres. We didn’t have any problem with space.”
Ultimately, the district’s available land will allow for future expansion of the solar power system. “Down the Dutch Flat area is where we have the project,” explains Lyons, “and it’s almost like a wetland—grassy, wide open. We could probably put 30 more of these on that property to add to the 255 panels we have now.”
The solar power system installed at Idyllwild addresses many of the challenges that have thwarted widespread use of solar energy in the past. Cost and space are not the only obstacles to be overcome. Until the Idyllwild project, solar power played only a supporting role at most large-scale facilities because of its relatively low output potential.
According to Sherring, Idyllwild’s solar power system “produces a relatively high output on an annual basis in kilowatt-hours: 45 kilowatts’ worth of installed capacity as DC power capacity. We then use an inverter that converts from the DC to AC.”
|
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Idyllwild now has the ability to switch between solar power and power from the electric company. |
|
Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Drought conditions contributed to the death of 80% of the San Bernardino National Forest. |
Upon completion of the conversion from DC to AC power, the electricity supplied by the solar panels can power the entire facility. Says Sherring, “We are driving—I think I am right in saying—a total of about seven to 10 different motors and pumps, filters—all of them purely driven by sun in the absence of the grid.
“You can imagine that the solar power input from the sun is a variable,” he explains. “We don’t know if it’s going to be bright and sunny in the morning or if a cloud might come over. It’s a variable resource, and we have a unique technology which enables us to couple that variable resource with motors and pumps and still manage to drive them even in the absence of grid power.”
“What makes this thing unique,” states Lyons, “is the blending, which is a patent WorldWater has with Edison.” He outlines how the blending actually works: “What our systems do is essentially check 1,000 times per second, or thereabouts, how much solar power is available, and then they modify the speed or the frequency of which they drive the pump or the motor by something called a ‘variable-speed drive’ to enable us to drive all of these motors and pumps.
“They may drive fractionally slower than they would if they were on full power,” he explains, “but nonetheless they drive and they provide water to the community. So that’s a unique technology that WorldWater has. It’s patented and no one else in the world can do that.”
Can’t Have Too Many Options The ability to switch between power supplied by the electric company and the solar panel system contributes to the significance of the Idyllwild project.
“The client—in this case the Idyllwild water facility—doesn’t have to do anything,” says Sherring, “and no one else in the world can do that, and this is very definitely the first water utility anywhere in the world that has this system applied to its operation.”
The district did face some challenges when it began to operate on power supplied by WorldWater’s system. For example, California power utilities require automatic disconnection from the grid in the event of a blackout, leaving most water utilities without power.
“When the grid collapses or is not available,” says Sherring, “the solar systems are obliged to disconnect from the grid so that they don’t accidentally electrocute someone who is trying fix the grid lines.”
Idyllwild complies with the regulation to cut off from the main power grid, but its solar system allows it to continue to operate. “Our systems do that because they’re required to,” says Sherring, “but our systems then continue to power in this case the pumps, the filters, the computers—you name it—all of the various systems of the water utility just using solar power alone. When the grid comes back again, the systems seamlessly switch over to combining grid power and solar power to maximize the output.”
|
| Plans from WorldWater & Power Corp. |
Initially, the project worked perfectly with the district’s various pumps and filtration systems. For WorldWater, the large scale of the project did not pose a problem, but the multiple equipment installations were a challenge.
“We’ve put in very large systems for irrigation and for refrigeration,” says Sherring, “but this is the first time we’ve put together as many pumps and motors in one system. Not only are we driving pumps and motors and filters; we also had to deal with other requirements for powering computers and various gear.”
According to Lyons, the interface between the utility’s equipment and its computer system became problematic when the district attempted to utilize the newly installed solar power system to meet all of its energy needs.
“We had some systems that didn’t seem to want to accept that blending, and we had to put in some different controls for our pumps and wells. We had some old mercury controls, and they just didn’t seem to want to respond to that blending, so we had to modify those.”
In addition to coordinating all of the utility’s heavy machinery, according to Sherring, WorldWater also faced the daunting task of powering the plant’s computer system. “For example,” he says, “there is a set of logic that tells the system which well to pump from and which filter to run based on what they’ve been doing lately or the demand, and that system needs to be run from a separate power source.”
Sherring feels the company’s ultimate success resulted from “understanding the interrelationship between the various parts of the process and designing that into our system. There were a lot of firsts here.”
Initially, those other systems were run on power supplied by Edison, but the results convinced Lyons to push for an entirely solar-based system. The electricity delivered by Edison surged and ebbed, creating peaks and valleys that interfered with the operation of Idyllwild’s sensitive computer-based systems.
“We had some delays in some of the controls because we kept getting dirty power,” says Lyons, “and didn’t understand what was causing it, so that probably took us three months to figure out.
“Believe it or not, what people do not understand about power is you can get dirty power from Edison,” he explains, “and that’s what we were getting from Edison: dirty power that needed to be filtered.”
WorldWater fixed the problem by adding another layer of technological assistance. Once WorldWater installed its sign wave equipment, all the glitches disappeared. According to Lyons, the effect was immediate. “This sign wave equipment was actually installed in December,” he says, “and just smoothed everything out and gave us clean power. Once we put the sign wave equipment in, it just ran like a clock. It still does.”
Sherring states that the sign wave equipment contributes significantly to the Idyllwild project. “It really is exceedingly sophisticated in terms of what it’s doing with solar energy—it’s really a kind of landmark installation—and we’re fortunate to have this technology and have a forward-looking organization like Idyllwild to take this on. It took a little while to come up with the best approach,” he says, “but it has moved the technology forward in a significant way.”
Despite those initial adjustments, Lyons is delighted with the overall performance of WorldWater’s solar system. “Most solar companies—all solar companies with the exception of WorldWater—operate up to a 5-horsepower motor, but nobody can operate over 5 horsepower,” he says. WorldWater is “ the only company in the world that can operate motors up to 600 horsepower right across the line.
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Photo: WorldWater & Power Corp. |
| Breaking ground for solar at the Forest Lake/Dutch Flats site |
“So, let me give you an example,” continues Lyons. “If we lost power during an earthquake up here, we’re able to run that entire system every day as long as we’ve got sunshine. You know, as long as that is available, we can operate everything 100% on solar. No other company can do that.
“We have several factors that make this thing a ‘win win’ situation,” he says. “We run the meter backwards, of course, and we run power back into Edison. We don’t sell the power; it’s a credit. What we do is bank the power with Edison.”
The banking of power credits becomes significant during the overcast or rainy days that can interfere with the effectiveness of the solar panel. According to Sherring, “in the event that the grid isn’t available, which happens from time to time in these more distant parts of California, the solar system is quite capable, of course, of powering all their pumps and filters such as they can provide water to their community, even without the grid.”
By switching to solar power, the district anticipates operating a system able to reliably and efficiently deliver water to its customers, despite outside forces like disruptions in service or prohibitive costs. With the WorldWater solar power system, the district can run while disconnected from Edison’s power grid, and this makes Lyons confident about the district’s ability to consistently supply water to its customers.
“Operating Independently—That’s a Major Factor”
Fully operational since the start of the year, Idyllwild’s solar power system continues to operate as expected. The success of the blending technology in particular continues to demonstrate the increasing viability of solar as an alternate power source for major utilities and agencies across the nation.
“It’s a landmark installation,” says Sherring. “We’re delighted—obviously—to have the opportunity to work with this forward-looking organization. These are 25-year power stations, so they will be reaping the benefits for at least the next 25 years.” For a real-time view of electricity being generated by the panels, go to http://www.idyllwildwater.com/Solar.html.
In light of the project’s initial success, Lyons is optimistic about its future potential and sees many benefits in the district’s decision to switch to solar power. Financially, the district finds itself in an optimal position. “We’re literally having more banking than we’ll ever draw down on,” Lyons says, “and that is a plus.”
Using solar power also allows the district to manage the water facility more effectively. “Most districts won’t operate during the daytime because of the power costs,” explains Lyons, “but we can operate during the daytime and we can manage it—always see the system better because we can see if there’s any problems. You can’t see if there’s a problem at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning when most water companies are running through the night because of the power costs.
“At the end of 12 years, we’ll be out of the woods,” predicts Lyons. “We’ll have literally free power. From that point on we’ll be able to maintain water rates for quite a while because of the fact we’ve got our own control on power, and that’s one of the things that hurts most of the water districts and sewer districts: the cost of power. If you’re locked into that [paying for power], you don’t have much control over that. We do. We’re essentially independent now.”
As for WorldWater, the future holds the possibility of many more water utilities following in Idyllwild’s footsteps. Sherring confirms that the company has “a number of other utilities we’re talking to. We also talk to wastewater facilities who have similar challenges.
“It’s unique. No one else can do this,” says Sherring. “We want to get the message out, and here’s a superb opportunity to showcase Idyllwild’s progressive approach. No doubt we’ll be looking to bring other clients by this facility in the future. We see a tremendous market for this type of technology for California and beyond.”