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    California American Water, Rentricity work on in-conduit hydropower project

    June 14, 2022
    Once complete the site is expected to generate 75 to 125 kilowatts of clean energy at different times of the day
    Photo by David Hyde, Dreamstime.
    David Hyde Dreamstime 62a8c4e4cf02f

    California American Water has partnered with hydropower clean energy firm Rentricity on a clean energy recovery infrastructure project, the Highland Tank Conduit-Hydro Clean Energy Project, which is sponsored by the California Public Utilities Commission.

    The project involves retrofitting two NSF-certified low lead turbines to boost annual power generation over the diurnal and seasonal cycles. The Rentricity Flow-to-Wire systems, which will be used here, will capture excess pressure and flow in the gravity-fed water distribution pipelines and convert that energy into clean energy for the grid. Once complete, the site will generate about 75 to 125 kilowatts of clean energy at different periods of the day.

    This clean energy will be supplied to one of the Community Choice Aggregators in the San Diego Gas & Electric region.

    "As our population and industry grows in the United States, more water will be piped to people, farm fields and industrial processors," says Frank Zammataro, Rentricity's CEO and Co-founder. "We need to embrace in-conduit hydropower as a consistent and predictable form of clean energy that can be harnessed to support emerging microgrids adopting solar, wind and thermal resources," he added.

    Innovative technologies, like in-conduit hydropower, can provide water operators the opportunity to ensure a reduction in costs and improve infrastructure. Moreover, there is a rising interest in this technology as a unique form of clean energy that can balance the emergence of microgrids.

    "We are excited to work with Rentricity to complete this important infrastructure project to determine how California American Water might leverage this technology in the future to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce costs to customers," said Kevin Tilden, President of California American Water. "With in-conduit hydropower we have another option to reduce our carbon footprint and energy costs. ESG is core to our business and integral to our success. California American Water is dedicated to finding effective new technologies that increase efficiencies in our systems.”

    The existing transmission and distribution lines will be used as originally built and used for the distribution of potable water.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.