Des Moines Water Works: Energy performance

Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge partners strive to decrease source energy use intensity (EUI) and to increase the percent improvement compared to a set baseline year. As part of the Better Plants Challenge, DMWW has pledged to improve the energy intensity at three treatment plants by 25% over ten years. This voluntary pledge aligns with DMWW’s commitment to sustainability, highlighted by the completion of several large projects in recent years, including LED lighting, improving operating efficiency through operator training and real-time energy monitoring for SEUs, and an expanded building management system. With a purchased energy intensity improvement of 15% during the first five years,  DMWW is progressing well in meeting its 25% reduction in energy intensity by 2025.

Looking at the percent improvement in energy performance across all facilities can provide insight into how an organization is saving energy.  All three DMWW’s treatment plants showed improved energy intensity in 2021.

DMWW is the largest water utility in Iowa, among the largest 100 utilities in the country, and is recognized as an industry leader, and calculates energy intensity in terms of source purchased energy consumed (in MMBtus) per million gallons of finished water flow and weather data. The percent change in energy intensity is tracked for all the facilities on both a monthly and annual basis for corporate-wide percent improvement in energy intensity calculations.