While plants sit idle

Published by Engineers Media MARCH 2013 $11.36 Vol 7 No 1

water engineering australia

DESALINATION DEBATE Were the plants a good idea?

Inside: Pipes | Wastewater Treatment 01 - Cover.indd 1

18/03/13 4:19 PM

COVER STORY | Water Engineering Australia

Water planning debate continues while plants sit i

by Danny Cameron

D

uring the past six years, there have been six large seawater reverse osmosis plants built around Australia, worth more than $12 billion, with two in Perth, and one each on the Gold Coast, in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. In addition, a recycling system and Water Grid have been constructed in Brisbane, worth more than $6 billion. With the exception of Perth’s desalination plants, much of Australia’s recent $18 billion investment in water infrastructure sits idle, in standby mode until the environmental situation once again cycles into a sustained dry period that places stress on water supplies.

University of NSW School of Civil & Environmental Engineering senior lecturer Stuart Khan said: “It’s clear in retrospect that many of these schemes were constructed well before they were required.”

16

16-19 - Cover.indd 16

He likened the future need of a desalination plant, at the long lead time of 10 to 20 years, as futile in the face of how quickly technology changes: “This will bring major improvements including in energy efficiency and waste management. In 20 years, we will have a bunch of oldtechnology, inefficient, energy-intensive and operationally expensive seawater desalination plants scattered around the country.”

Looking at the Sydney desalination plant in particular, Khan referred to the 2006 NSW government inquiry where, as a witness, he argued: “Seawater desalination plants are what you build when you have failed to plan properly and are left with minimal time to respond to a looming crisis. There are still major advantages that could be taken from various water recycling options, but to capitalise on these requires a longer,

WATER ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA MARCH 2013

18/03/13 3:53 PM

Water Engineering Australia | COVER STORY

L and r: The Adelaide Desalination Plant is planned to enter standby mode after the completion of its operational proving period in December 2014.

t idle slower process than simply constructing desalination plants.”

He told Water Engineering Australia magazine: “By the end of 2007, it was clear that the desalination plant was not going to be required in the medium-term. I really can’t see it being useful now for a decade and we could certainly hold it off even longer with some good sustainable water planning.”

Khan said he saw more justification in investment in water supply augmentation in southeast Queensland, where residents faced severe water restrictions and the possibility that Brisbane could run out of water within two years during the Millennium Drought (1997-2009).

“Had the rains not come in 2009, the Water Grid project would have saved the city from a true crisis and it would have been internationally renowned for having done so.”

When ex-tropical cyclone Oswald increased turbidity in the

Brisbane River in January, Seqwater used the Water Grid and the Gold Coast Desalination Plant to provide water supplies for the greater Brisbane region. The desalination plant was operating at full capacity on 1 February and switched to standby mode later in the month.

Adelaide was facing similar circumstances to southeast Queensland. During the Millennium Drought, the Murray River virtually stopped flowing and, with increasing salinity near the inlets to the pumping stations, Adelaide came close to running out of potable water. SA Water chief executive John Ringham said: “The Adelaide desalination plant is South Australia’s insurance policy against future droughts and provides a flexible, climate independent water source.”

Last October, SA Water announced plans to place its $1.83 billion desalination plant in standby mode following a 24

WATER ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA MARCH 2013

16-19 - Cover.indd 17

17

18/03/13 3:53 PM

COVER STORY | Water Engineering Australia

Desalination plants are not constructed to provide water for the next couple of years. They have a design life exceeding 50 years, during which time there is no doubt there will be further droughts, population growth and probably drying climate.

The Gold Coast Desalination Plant provided water to the greater Brisbane region after ex-tropical cyclone Oswald reduced water quality in the Brisbane River. The plant (foreground) is shown here in 2009.

month operational proving period, which is scheduled to conclude at the end of December 2014. Ringham said: “To keep costs down for our customers, SA Water is planning to use our lower cost water sources first, which will mean placing the desalination plant in standby mode when these cheaper sources are available.”

Sydney Desalination Plant went on standby earlier last year. The Victorian Desalination Plant was completed last December – but no water was ordered from it. Victorian water minister Peter Walsh is displeased with the state paying “$1.8 million a day just to have the desalination plant sitting idle”.

Neil Palmer, chief executive of the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia, said: “It costs a lot of money to ‘mothball’ a desalination plant. You need chemicals to preserve reverse osmosis membranes and skilled operators to ensure the plant is maintained in a suitable condition so that it is available when needed in the future.”

He said the sensible alternative to “mothballing” is to operate it continuously at reduced capacity.

“The Gold Coast Desalination Plant, for example, has been operated in ‘hot standby’ mode at 5% of its capacity for the past two years.”

No matter how much water is ordered, regular ongoing payments were also built into the operation and maintenance

18

16-19 - Cover.indd 18

contracts as a way of securing the finance required to deliver the projects on behalf of the governments. Palmer said that due to the urgency at the height of the drought, the short time-frames on the construction of the plants inevitably meant the plants were also built with some form of cost premium.

The short time-frames demanded were due to the perceived crisis in water supply some of the systems were facing, an evident failure of water planning processes around the country.

“In cases like Brisbane and Sydney, there had been significant population growth with little investment in new substantial water sources. So the construction of the desalination facilities were the result of a ‘catch up’ for long periods of no serious water supply infrastructure investment and a form of insurance against future droughts,” he said.

It is a trend that is found in the history of the development of Sydney’s water supply infrastructure, where each successive improvement – the Tank Stream, the Lachlan Swamp tunnel, Botany Swamp, Nepean dams and then Warragamba Dam, was the result of a water supply crisis. Desalination was the next crisis solution.

However, Palmer referred to an Australia-wide survey of community attitudes towards desalination that the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia had recently

WATER ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA MARCH 2013

18/03/13 3:53 PM

Water Engineering Australia | COVER STORY

Installation of reverse osmosis membranes at the Sydney Desalination Plant in September 2008.

completed. The survey was conducted after rain had fallen in the eastern states, and the need for alternative water sources had diminished, and received 3077 written responses.

“The researchers found that general attitudes towards desalination in Australia were quite positive. In fact, 54% of Australians surveyed were supportive of desalination while only 21% were unsupportive,” Palmer said.

“While the media appears to promote the view that desalination is unpopular, this is not supported by the Australians surveyed. Desalination plants are not constructed to provide water for the next couple of years. They have a design life exceeding 50 years, during which time there is no doubt there will be further droughts, population growth and probably drying climate.”

He also argued that in building $18 billion of water treatment technology in such a short time-frame, Australia has created a new industry that will drive innovation and export opportunities globally.

While all of the major municipal seawater desalination plants have been delivered by consortia which have included Spanish and French process designers (Degrémont, Veolia, Acciona Agua and Valoriza Agua), some have also included Australian-owned consulting engineering firms like GHD and WorleyParsons, and construction companies like AJ Lucas.

Many of these companies have learnt a great deal and some,

like GHD, are leveraging this knowledge in overseas work in places like the US. Also, the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia was established with a view to capitalise on this activity to help build Australia’s intellectual, research and industry capability. “There has been a surge in desalination research activity and many of the projects have promise of commercialisation of new Australian ideas,” Palmer said.

The centre now harnesses the expertise of 300 government, academic and industry scientists and engineers, and its 44 innovative desalination research projects are supported by more than 90 industry and academic partners – one third of them international. The centre is based at Murdoch University’s Rockingham campus and has awarded 27 scholarships worth $970,000 to Australian university students, facilitating the employment of students within the industry.

Palmer said: “The centre’s scientists are continually improving desalination technology to further lower energy consumption of desalination plants. Our researchers are also looking at how Australia can replace costly materials imports and create new export opportunities.”

He said the centre’s experts and research projects are becoming increasingly sought after internationally, helping to build Australia’s reputation. ■

WATER ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA MARCH 2013

16-19 - Cover.indd 19

19

18/03/13 3:53 PM