Project Details
Project Name
City of Needville Wastewater Treatment
Equipment Used
Kohler 200 kW Natural Gas Generator
Location
Needville, TX
Project Description
Loss of electricity during natural disasters can quickly become a major challenge that can affect the public’s health and well-being. As demonstrated recently after Hurricane Harvey, not all utility providers are prepared for such outages. They are unable to get their systems back up and operational during their community’s times of need. Without a standby power generation system, water and wastewater treatment services cannot be provided. Clean water is absolutely necessary for the public’s well being, especially during a state of emergency.
Keeping The Water Supply Safe
An extended power loss can devastate a city’s drinking water supply and wastewater pumping abilities during emergency situations. Losing water pressure can result in contaminants from surrounding soil and groundwater entering the drinking water distribution system. For wastewater utilities, being unable to use their pumps may lead to the direct discharge of untreated sewage into rivers and streams. Inoperable pumps at a water treatment facility, not only affect homes and businesses but local healthcare facilities also. A lack of clean water at a hospital or nursing home during an emergency can inhibit their ability to properly care for their patients and may have tragic consequences.
Between Beaumont and Houston, 118,000 people were without drinking water after Hurricane Harvey’s floods disabled the city’s water system. For most of them, there was no easy way out of a town that now felt like more of an island. The city was surrounded by swollen rivers and bayous, cutting off most roads with no access to retrieve bottled drinking water. In order to prevent this from happening again, Southwest Water Company reached out to Total Energy Solutions.
The Solution
Total Energy Solutions worked with the City of Needville to figure out their exact power needs to ensure the city’s water supply is prepared with a backup power generation system to keep the facility running efficiently during a power outage of any shape or size. After assessing all of the facility’s needs according to its size and operation parameters, we began our work to ensure Needville’s water treatment plant would have the backup power system it needed. We rebuilt the existing electrical system to assure it could efficiently deliver power from the backup generator TES would be installing. We built a concrete pad for the generator to sit on as well as a duct bank for the electrical feed. Finally, we installed a 200kW Kohler natural gas standby generator on the concrete pad and connected the generator to the rebuilt electrical system.
In addition to the generator, we are also providing continuous preventative maintenance and repair for their new generator to ensure their standby power system is always running efficiently and ready to power their facility. For more information about natural gas power generation systems, installation and our preventative maintenance services, please contact Total Energy Solutions to learn about how we can help you protect your community.
