Remember the 2003 blackout?
We sure do. And coming off the storms that left much of Northeast Ohio without power this past week, we recall that devastating blackout and the major changes it motivated. Today, we are better prepared than ever to continue safeguarding human health and the environment even during an energy crisis.
On August 14, 2003, fifty million people across the Midwest and Northeast lost power in a massive two-day-long blackout. The outage cost at least 11 people their lives and caused billions of dollars in damage.
At the Sewer District, innovation and creative problem solving helped ensure uninterrupted wastewater treatment, but had the blackout occurred during a wet-weather week, when our treatment facilities handle much larger quantities of wastewater, how would the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie have fared?
It was an infrastructure emergency with huge environmental implications — and a major wakeup call.
Waking up fast
Immediately after the blackout, the Sewer District began working to get backup generators in place at every District facility, and within two years, those generators were up and running.
We conduct monthly operations checks and have maintained the generators at a high level of readiness. Still, there is always room for improvement, and in recent years, we made significant upgrades, particularly in the realm of emissions.
Our generators are powered by diesel fuel, which releases emissions, but we added new pollution control equipment that breaks down pollutants into less harmful components, as a catalytic converter does in a vehicle. The generators also use ultra-low-sulfur fuel, which sends far fewer sulfur dioxide emissions into the atmosphere than the diesel fuels of the past.
Going proactive
As a result of emissions upgrades and air permitting updates, the Sewer District became eligible in 2020 to take part in programs in which we periodically and intentionally take our wastewater treatment plants off the electric grid. The first such program was the Emergency Load Response Program, which involves switching to off-grid generator power on pre-determined days and for defined periods of time. Think of these as drills to help ensure we are prepared in the event of a crisis.
We also go off-grid in cases of actual emergency, of course, and every time we move to generator power, the Sewer District can both save and earn money — nearly $1 million (net) since 2020. A large chunk of those dollars paid off our generator upgrades, and we continue to save and earn.
Joining more electricity-saving programs
Our Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant joined First Energy’s Peak Prediction Program, a utility surcharge pilot, and each year from June 1 to September 30, the plant runs its generators on peak demand days, during times when the electric grid is particularly strained.
The process of switching to generator power is not instantaneous, though, so capturing energy use peaks requires skilled staff and sophisticated peak prediction. Currently, the Sewer District works with a consultant on peak prediction, but we have been using and refining our own peak prediction tool, and ultimately, we will handle prediction ourselves.
Westerly and Easterly, whose electricity comes from Cleveland Public Power, are active in the Synchronized Reserve Market program, in which the plants go off-grid for short periods of time (usually 10–15 minutes) once a month.
Even these short breaks help reduce demand, and participating in the program is saving around $50,000 per year.
Ensuring our impact is positive
By regularly transitioning between grid and generator power, the Sewer District has become far better prepared for future emergencies, even some beyond the service area.
We maintain a particularly high state of readiness and have supported other sewer districts in times of crisis. In 2019, when tornadoes struck Dayton and the Miami Valley, skilled tradespeople from the Sewer District joined the emergency response and supported the water and sewer utilities in need, repairing generators and bringing one of their own.
We received commendations from the state of Ohio and the Federal Emergency Management Agency for what we did to prevent a water crisis in Montgomery County.
Today, we’re confident that even in the face of a total grid failure like the one that occurred during the 2003 blackout, the Sewer District will keep operations moving and continue to do what we always do: safeguard human health and the region.
Special thanks to Lita Laven, John Corn, Mark Black, and Sarah Rehner for insights and input on this story.
