Month: June 2019

Sydney Water’s Lower South Creek Achieves Excellent Design IS Rating

Sydney Water’s Lower South Creek Treatment Program has received the highest rating ever achieved for an Australian water infrastructure project from the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA). 

The program involves a $450m upgrading of facilities at St Marys and Quakers Hill which will see the adoption of new technologies that will make water treatment more sustainable, cost efficient and effective.

The Lower South Creek Treatment Program is set to achieve a 42% reduction in whole of life greenhouse gas emissions which earned an Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Design “Excellent” rating of 69.7 points.

ISCA CEO Ainsley Simpson said, “this is the highest IS rating ever achieved for a water infrastructure project and includes numerous innovations and sustainable outcomes which other water utilities can follow and learn from. A tremendous achievement for Sydney Water.”

ISCA Case Manager, Kieren Heikkinen added “the outcomes were particularly impressive considering the IS rating was initially undertaken as a benchmarking exercise with little additional effort expended on sustainability, which reflects Sydney Water’s focus on sustainable outcomes. Learnings from the project and IS rating can and should be applied across Sydney Water.”

Energy and carbon forecast modelling for the project estimates that the Lower South Creek Treatment Program will achieve a reduction of 870,000 tonnes or a 42% reduction of Greenhouse Gas total emissions during construction and across its 50 years’ operation. This reduction includes embodied CO2 emissions from construction materials and treatment chemicals.

Onsite renewable energy use is a core objective of the Lower South Creek Treatment Strategy, with the consolidated solids processing at St Marys implemented to allow for anaerobic digestion and energy recovery through a co-generation plant. With on-site thermal energy recovery and electricity generation the project is able to self-supply 69% of its electricity demand.

The Lower South Creek Program is Sydney Water’s first project to trial the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia’s IS Rating tool and certification process. This process has provided independent third-party assurance of sustainability outcomes in delivery of the project.

Gill Fowler, Lead Environmental Scientist at Sydney Water said “embarking on the IS journey provided greater incentive and opportunity to challenge current process thinking and explore new ways of operating.

“This helped drive sustainability benefits and reduced energy demand and our carbon footprint.”

To achieve Sydney Water’s first IS Rating, the program deployed many innovative processes and technologies. These included the transfer of sludge for consolidated biosolids processing and installation of mechanical primary sedimentation screens, which were Australian firsts.

Other innovations included anaerobic digestion with Thermal Hydrolysis Pre-treatment (THP) at St Marys and the secondary treatment process was modified to a Nereda Aerobic Granulated Sludge bioreactor, after a successful pilot trial, at the Quakers Hill Plant.

These innovations all helped to deliver industry-leading sustainability benefits which resulted in a full 10/10 score for innovation from ISCA, with two of the innovation points awarded for exceeding the benchmarks for energy and carbon reduction, and renewable energy supply.

The Lower South Creek Delivery Partner (WSP and UGL) put forward the IS tool to benchmark the project’s sustainability performance without incurring additional capital costs This process has provided insights into how Sydney Water policies and procedures align with best practice in the IS Rating tool.

James Logie at WSP said “this is an amazing result for Sydney Water’s first IS Rating and highlights the impressive efforts from Sydney Water to plan and deliver innovative and more sustainable wastewater solutions.”

Anthony Korbel, Program Director said “ISCA certification of the Lower South Creek Treatment Program is a further step by the infrastructure industry and in particular Sydney Water in recognising the importance of sustainability in the delivery of large capital programs. It’s been both an interesting and rewarding process for the (WSP/UGL) team and I’m delighted to see such a fantastic result.”

The Lower South Creek Treatment Program used a novel approach to forecasting and benchmarking energy and carbon under the IS Rating tool. This involved comparison against robust energy benchmark data published by the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) from 245 Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP) across Australia and New Zealand.

Gill Fowler added “Sydney Water has committed to obtaining a sustainability benchmark for all its major infrastructure projects.”

Sydney Light Rail Achieves an ‘Excellent’ Design IS Rating

The design of the Sydney Light Rail project has been rated as ‘Excellent’, with an overall score of 68.5 points. The Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) congratulates Acciona and Alstom on this exemplar achievement.

The project also scored a maximum of 10 points in the Innovation Category, with four Australian firsts recorded.

The most outstanding aspects of the project in relation to sustainability and innovation include its HESOP regenerative braking system, which generates significant energy savings during the operation phase of the infrastructure.

This system allows more than 99% of the energy produced during braking to be recovered and reused for auxiliary equipment, lighting and ventilation. The implementation of this braking system also means a reduction in the number of substations and eliminates the need to incorporate braking resistance, which results in an overall saving of materials on the project.

Another innovation was recorded in relation to the High Cross Park substation, with an underground design and construction to minimise the potential impact on trees, as well as on cultural and heritage features in the area. It also has a geothermal air-conditioning system that will save 15 MWH of energy every year during operation, equivalent to saving 12.6 tonnes of carbon annually compared to a conventional system.

Greenhouse gas emissions have also been reduced by 10 per cent by implementing regenerative brakes, purchasing renewable energy and installing the geothermal air-conditioning system in Randwick.

To mitigate potential flooding in the CSELR (CBD and South East Light Rail) project area, a detailed assessment of hydrological impacts and mitigation measures were undertaken. Overall, the project will improve the flood impacts to properties, including 800 properties in the Randwick/Kensington area, as a result of raising the embankment at Kensington Ponds.

Acciona and Alstom are part of the ALTRAC consortium, commissioned to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain the CBD and South East Light Rail, which includes a 12 km double track route, and the subsequent operation of 25 km of infrastructure, comprised of the new CBD and South East Light Rail and  12.7 km Inner West Light Rail.

The Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) is a member-based not-for-profit industry council, and certified social enterprise. As a peak industry body, our purpose is to accelerate sustainability in infrastructure through collaboration. We deliver our impact by measuring what matters through third-party assurance, building industry capability, advocating for better infrastructure outcomes and supporting a growing passionate community of practice. Read more information on the IS Rating Scheme.