| | | | | | | | | | Item 5.
COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM | | | |
| | | | | | | | TO: | Sustainability Resiliency Committee Meeting |
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| FROM:
| Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
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| DATE: | March 20, 2019
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| SUBJECT: | DISCUSSION REGARDING THE GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY FROM TURBINES INSTALLED IN CITY WATER PIPES BY THE CITY OF PORTLAND, OREGON
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| | | | | | | | RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT: Roy Coley, Public Works Director |
| | | | | | | | LEGISLATIVE TRACKING: Item C4 AK - January 16, 2019 Commission Meeting |
| | | | | | | | SPONSORED: Commissioner John Aleman |
| | | | | | | | BACKGROUND: There was a recent online article published by Good Money where it described how the City of Portland will generate electricity from turbines installed in its City’s water pipes. This effort is possible, the article says, through Oregon’s partnership with Lucid Energy to generate clean electricity from the water already flowing under its streets and through its pipes.
Portland replaced a section of its existing water supply network with Lucid Energy pipes containing four (4) forty-two inch turbines. As water flows through the pipes, the turbines spin generating power which is then fed back into the City’s electrical grid. This project is scheduled to begin in March of 2019.
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| | | | | | | | Analysis
This technology is very interesting and it has been taken into consideration by Public Works. However, in the City of Miami Beach, the circumstances are different than that of Portland’s. The use of turbines inside water lines is most useful in areas where there are elevation differences, such as pipes going over hills/mountains. When water is moving downhill there is free energy available to be recaptured with these turbines. When the water is being pumped on relatively flat land, such as ours, the turbines would likely consume more of the pumped energy then they could produce.
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