Cooling Tower Projects Bring Big Water Savings

When you’re looking for a project that will have a major impact on your business’s water usage, consider upgrading your cooling tower system. Cooling towers frequently are the equipment at commercial and industrial facilities that use the most water, and the average cooling tower efficiency project results in more than 1 million gallons of water saved per year! Key Accounts customers Kaiser Permanente and R.W. Zant Company completed cooling tower projects to improve their water efficiency. And although the scope of their projects varied, they both had one thing in common: substantial water savings.

Kaiser Permanente’s project included the installation of a deionization water pre-treatment system at its South Bay Medical Center. The deionization system filters water as it travels into the cooling tower, reducing calcium, iron, and other dissolved minerals. The highly purified water that results can remain in the cooling tower reservoir two times longer before being discharged.

The impact of Kaiser Permanente’s project is impressive. The medical center’s new deionization system decreases blow-down, and water usage, by 5.7 million gallons per year. Those water savings also bring financial savings of approximately $90,000 in water and sewer costs annually, which translates into a return on investment of less than one year.

Five years ago, R.W. Zant Company completed a cooling tower project to improve their cold storage facility’s water efficiency. Their upgrades to four evaporative condensers included the installation of a variety of equipment, such as new conductivity controllers and chemical pumps. As a result of these changes, the business conserves 1.5 million gallons of water per year.

More recently, the food wholesaler and distributor took the next step with its water conservation by replacing two of its existing evaporative condensers with adiabatic condensers, which provide both wet and dry cooling. Making this transition creates more opportunities not only for water savings, but for energy savings as well. During periods of peak energy costs, adiabatic condensers save energy when they pre-cool outside air by passing it through a sponge before it enters the condenser. They also are more water efficient than the condensers they replaced, with expected water savings between 100,000 and 200,000 gallons per year!

Through our Technical Assistance Program (TAP), customers can receive up to $2 million in financial incentives for water-efficiency projects like these. The program also provides free cooling tower assessments to help property owners identify needs and options. To learn more about TAP, contact your account advisor or visit ladwp.com/tap.