In an effort to support the area’s continual growth while also conserving natural resources, the City of Grand Rapids decided to build a bio-digestion system next to their existing wastewater treatment facility. As the trusted electrical partner, our team offered valuable services and experience throughout all of the project phases.

Phase 1: Biodigester

Able to recycle the carbon in municipal solid wastes into energy, the new biodigester is expected to generate 60% of the electricity needed for the wastewater treatment plant. This allows the City to save an estimated $600,000 yearly while helping them reach their goal of powering city buildings with 100% renewable energy sources by 2025.

As the electrical partner, Our team reworked and reprogrammed the SCADA and PLC operations for the new co-gen integration. Additionally, we provided the plant’s main medium volt electrical service, detailed control wiring, panel builds, fiber optics, BIM modeling, and underground services.

Our team traveled to Austria to source two containerized generators, which were purchased and delivered to the site. We also furnished their new 12 section medium volt line up that houses the facility’s MCC, electrical panels, switchboard, and dry type transformers. Each compartment is equipped with full PLC and SCADA integration, allowing for increased data accessibility while mitigating downtime.

Another major project was installing over 24 miles of conduit on site to support the new buildings. This included running 6.5 miles of underground conduit within the concrete-encased duct banks.

Phase 2: Renewable Natural Gas

The RNG system takes the biogas, cleans it, and prepares it for resale to the local utility company. The site integrates power and controls, including the medium volt system and SCADA systems, into the existing facility and the new biodigester building. Our team successfully completed an impressive 1,750 foot parallel run of 5kV cable for this phase, completing it as a single continuous run through seven manholes. Much of this work was completed in a class 1 division 1 location, requiring a stricter level of installation to prevent hazardous gas leaks.

Phase 3: Phosphorus Recovery

During the bio-digestion process, phosphorus is created as a by-product. The phosphorus recovery plant is responsible for removing this phosphorus from the biogas and cleaning it for resale to the fertilizer industry. FZ integrated power and controls, including the medium voltage system, controls, and SCADA systems, from the phosphorus recovery plant into the existing facility and the new bio-digestion building. As with much of the project, this phase utilized various FZ service offerings. We also coordinated with several international vendors, which required our team to operate across many time zones and language barriers.