The City of Tualatin is controlling energy costs and supporting their climate action plan through an innovative approach: It recently installed a small hydropower project in the city’s water system to generate clean, renewable energy. With an eye on the future, the city took this opportunity to also lay the groundwork for energy resilience enhancements that can provide critical backup power. Energy Trust of Oregon is helping make this in-pipe hydropower project possible through expert guidance and an expected $270,600 in cash incentives, including project development assistance.

At Tualatin’s City Services Center, water traveling from the Bull Run Reservoir — Tualatin’s water source near Mount Hood — arrives in the city’s water system and flows through a pressure reduction valve at over 1,000 gallons per minute before feeding out to homes and businesses. The city installed a 56-kilowatt hydropower turbine and induction generator at the pressure reduction valve that captures the energy from the rushing water and turns it into clean power.

“Our water system has water going through that pipe 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s gravity fed, not dependent on an upstream pump, so this is a constant energy source year-round, every day,” said Nic Westendorf, deputy public works director, City of Tualatin.

The in-pipe hydropower project is projected to produce an estimated 180 megawatt-hours of clean power annually, which zeros out the facility’s yearly power consumption — and then some. It is estimated to save the City of Tualatin $14,000 in annual power costs starting in year one of operations.

“It’s going to help us keep rates affordable and stabilize our expenses,” he said. “And Tualatin has a goal of net zero emissions by 2050, so looking at ways to reduce our operational emissions is a huge component of our work.”

Collaboration, stacking funds makes project possible
InPipe Energy, a company that designs and installs energy recovery systems in water infrastructure, introduced the project idea to Tualatin.

“They hooked us up with the city of Hillsboro, which had installed an in-pipe hydropower project a few years ago. So, I visited the site, talked to some of the operators and figured out it could be feasible for us in Tualatin as well,” said Westendorf.

Energy Trust then helped the project come together with custom project development assistance and installation incentives as well as independent expertise and guidance to help the city through the process.

“Energy Trust was super helpful. It was key that they helped fund the project early on to get the design started, because then we could secure additional funding. They helped us find partners and resources to pursue,” he said. “There are folks at our utilities, our state agencies and Energy Trust that lend so much support, expertise and time that it really made the process easy, manageable and feasible.”

As a Portland General Electric customer, the City of Tualatin has applied for Energy Trust installation incentives. The city will combine those incentives with a grant from the Oregon Department of Energy and a Green Future Renewable Development Fund grant from PGE. They have also applied for a federal direct pay investment tax credit. Combined, the stacked funding will cover more than 85% of the $920,000 project cost.

PGE’s Green Future Renewable Development Fund, made possible by PGE’s Green Future renewable customers, supports innovative and impactful small-scale renewable energy projects such as this one.

Positioning for future energy resilience
Energy Trust also helped Tualatin broaden the project to create the framework for future full site energy resilience. The city installed extra conduits and infrastructure in key locations on site to support future battery storage and a potential microgrid, which would power critical municipal buildings during major outages or emergencies.

“We are positioning ourselves so that we can act nimbly when we may need to,” said Westendorf.

Now that the project is up and running, Westendorf is eager to help other municipalities learn about the potential for clean power generation through water distribution infrastructure.

“Creativity is key if we want to continue to grow and address the changing needs of our community and the challenges we’re facing. So, I was stoked to learn we could turn wasted energy into real energy,” he said. “If you’ve got the right site, I don’t see the downsides.”

Discover how Energy Trust can help your municipality, farm, ranch, or water district with expert advice and incentives for hydropower projects. Learn more.