Hydropower Energy Recovery from Wastewater Treatment Plant: Case of Zeekoegat Plant

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) require a significant a significant amount of energy to operate. Currently, several opportunities for energy recovery and electricity generation purpose in wastewater treatment plants have been studied and implemented. This paper presents a case study of implementing a hydropower system at the Zeekoegat wastewater treatment plant. The WWTP is situated in the north-east of Tshwane, South Africa, and using such set up to generate power has not yet been implemented in the country. The WWTP's electrical load demand, the water resources as well as the potential energy that can be recovered using the proposed hydropower plant has been evaluated to determine to projected cost savings over a proposed operation period of 20 years. The economic analysis shows that the breakeven point occurs after 6, 35 years at $ 327600.Fortheprojected20years,thepotentialcostsavedis $ 1 437 554, 98 which corresponds to 45, 63% of the total amount that would have been consumed if the grid is used as the sole supply.