Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA)

Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA) is a public, non-profit agency that provides water, wastewater, and reclaimed water services to the Carrboro-Chapel Hill community including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in southeastern Orange County, North Carolina. OWASA serves about 83,000 residents through about 21,300 customer accounts. Water and energy conservation are key to OWASA’s sustainable water management efforts, and efforts are now underway to prepare a formal energy management plan that will serve as a guide for OWASA’s future actions and investments on energy efficiency and use of renewable energy. As a first step in this effort, OWASA has completed a 10-year baseline assessment of energy use and a summary of key energy efficiency efforts to date, and it has developed draft “framing objectives” which will guide the development of the utility’s energy management plan.