Watergy: Responding to the Energy and Water needs of Indian municipalities

The Alliance to Save Energy, in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Asia-Environmental Partnership, is designing sustainable Watergy solutions for Indian municipalities to take advantage of opportunities that reduce energy use, water waste and costs, while at the same time improving water services. The India Watergy Program is assisting municipalities in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra . The main objectives of the India Watergy Program are to:

• Raise awareness among municipalities of the tremendous cost savings resulting from simple water and energy efficiency measures.
• Build in-house technical and managerial capacity of municipalities to undertake energy audits and implement energy savings measures.
• Help municipalities become financially sustainable and improve the reliability of water services to urban households.

Karnataka

In May 2002, the Alliance launched its first statewide municipal water and energy efficiency outreach program in the state of Karnataka to disseminate Watergy concepts. As part of the institutional capacity building process, the Alliance established and trained an Energy Management Cell (EMC) at the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), which now serves as a resource center on water and energy efficiency best practices for municipalities statewide.

The Alliance and KUIDFC selected four pilot municipalities of varying sizes in different state revenue divisions to demonstrate Watergy methodologies. These municipalities were Hubli-Dharwad, Mysore , Bellary City and Tiptur-Arasikere. The Alliance , along with its technical partner The Energy Resources Institute, facilitated energy audits of bulk water supply systems and efficiency assessments of street lighting systems. The audits found that huge energy savings could be realized with limited investments and rapid payback periods. The recommended energy efficiency measures were of two types: no and low cost, and high cost.

The no/low cost measures usually have a payback period of less than a year and involve measures such as surrendering of excess contracted electric demand, maintaining a good power factor, improving water flow distribution, rescheduling pump operation, and improving pumping efficiencies. These simple measures account for about 15-20% of the energy and financial savings. High cost measures include replacing inadequate pipelines, replacing impellers, installing energy efficient motors, and replacing inefficient pumps with energy efficient pumps that are better integrated to the system.

After the audit reports were finalized, each municipal corporation committed to implement energy savings measures. These measures often have wide reaching impacts. Surrendering excess demand, for example, relieves the load on the electric utility and enables the supply of power to unconnected households. The simultaneous reductions in municipal water waste, through more effective supply and distribution, allows the municipalities to reach water to more homes. As a result of the Watergy successes in Karnataka, the Asian Development Bank and World Bank have funded the implementation other municipalities in the state.

The Alliance's sustained partnership with the State Government of Karnataka has also yielded a proposed landmark policy unprecedented in India . This proposed statewide policy for Municipal Water and Energy Efficiency will oversee the devolution of central financial control, enabling local municipal governments to account for their energy use, pay their own energy bills, and enter into public-private partnerships based on energy service performance contracting models. Also see the Alliance's Watergy case study for Karnataka, India (PDF format).

Andhra Pradesh

In Andhra Pradesh the Alliance was asked by the Andhra Pradesh Urban Services for Poor (APUSP) to implement Watergy in the towns of Vizianagaram and Karimnagar. APUSP is an extensive, statewide program of the British aid agency DFID that encompasses 118 municipal councils. The resulting demonstrations of potential water and energy savings in the two pilot towns were decisive in APUSP's plan to undertake a comprehensive study of water supply systems in 22 other towns. Also as a result of the partnership with APUSP, a Handbook on Energy Efficiency in Municipal Water Pumping Systems was developed and distributed to all 118 municipalities in the state. The Vizianagaram Municipal Corporation issued an energy management tender incorporating the energy efficiency specifications as given in the handbook The Alliance also established and trained an Energy Management Cell at APUSP to serve as a state resource.

The Vizianagaram Municipal Corporation has agreed to complete installation of all energy efficiency measures recommended in the Alliance handbook. They are also in the process of procuring and installing two pumps. The Alliance will hold a re-measurement study after the installation of the new pumps to quantify energy and cost savings. The Karimanagar Municipal Council has implemented all no-cost and low-cost measures recommended in the Alliance report, including surrendering and enhancing of contracted demand. The Council is also waiting on approval from APUSP for their request for funds to implement investment oriented measures from the report.

The Alliance has also assisted Vishakapatnam Municipal Corporation (VMC) in Andhra Pradeshproviding them timely technical assistance in making their bulk water supply systems energy efficient. VMC has carried out a majority of the proposed recommendations including the investment-associated measures through utilization of their operations and maintenance funds. The Alliance will initiate a verification study of critical data after VMC has completed the installation of motors and surrendered the demand and replacement of inefficient piping headers to quantify energy and cost savings. Also see the Alliance's Watergy case studies for Vizianagaram and for Vishakhapatnam (both in PDF format).

Delhi

The Alliance hosted a Watergy workshop and training program in May 2005 for approximately 45 senior and middle level engineers, mostly from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The training was designed to help build the capacity necessary to develop sustainable energy management plans for the DJB. The Alliance has also submitted an energy audit report to DJB and US-AEP for the study undertaken at the Haiderpur–II pumping station during the training program. DJB has already implemented a variety of no- and low-cost measures from the report and are in the process of approving select investment oriented proposals based on available DJB funds and private participation. Based on the Watergy concept, DJB has also established its own Energy Management Cell which provides energy efficiency assistance to DJB engineers.

Maharashtra

The success of the state-wide approach used in Karnataka was replicated in the state of Maharashtra . There the Alliance worked with the Urban Development Department, the Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA) and the All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) to develop a Statewide Road Map for Energy Efficiency in Municipalities. The Alliance coordinated a detailed energy audit of the bulk water supply system in Pune and conducted a training seminar on energy efficiency best practices for engineers at the Pune Municipal Corporation. Implementation of all proposed short term measures in Pune is underway. PMC will be investing approximately $173,000 (Rs. 7,500,000) to carry out the recommendations.

The Alliance has been interacting with US-AEP, Maharashtra and the Maharashtra Energy Development Association (MEDA) to develop standard documents for inviting participants from the private sector to participate in Indian municipal energy efficiency projects. The Alliance has collected examples of existing documents highlighting similar efficiency projects from various stakeholders including the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), USAID, and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The documents have been submitted to US-AEP, Maharashtra and MEDA.