Case study 1

Energy management and greenhouse gas mitigation

Energy efficient Head Office

Hunter Water’s new head office building at Honeysuckle Drive was designed to achieve 4.5 star Australian Building Greenhouse Rating. This is estimated to save more than 50% of the energy we used at our previous Head Office complex.

 

Key energy saving features

The building design included many features to allow more efficient energy use, including:
• Using the north facing orientation and performance external glazing to control excess heat exchange
• Installing a high efficiency air conditioning system with extensive zoning and computer monitoring and control to ensure no pockets of the building are over heated or cooled
• Using motion detectors to operate lighting in toilets, store rooms and meeting rooms to ensure lights remain off when the room is not in use.
• Using solar power for water heating with gas backup on overcast days (gas generates less greenhouse gas than electricity).

 

Energy Saving Action Plans

In future years Hunter Water will face additional energy demands, mainly arising from:
• Improved environmental performance requirements at our sewage treatment facilities
• Connection of additional homes under the Priority Sewerage Program.
This increased energy consumption needs to be balanced against economic, environmental and social benefits, such as:
• Increased recycling of more highly treated effluent
• Discharge to the environment of a more highly treated effluent
• Reduced costs to householders who previously paid for pumping-out of septic tanks
• Reduced risk of overflows from septic systems, as householders switch from on-site disposal to the sewerage system
In order to ensure that our energy requirements are met in an efficient and cost effective way Hunter Water will be working with its major energy provider, Country Energy, to prepare Energy Saving Action Plans.

 

Greenhouse gas emissions abatement strategy

Hunter Water is also developing a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Abatement Strategy. This strategy will look at energy optimisation initiatives and offset strategies to reduce our carbon footprint.
One offset strategy that Hunter Water plans to proceed with will be carbon sequestration (removal of carbon from the atmosphere) via the planting of 1.5 million native trees across Hunter Water land over the next ten years.