NI Water calls for government backing for climate plan

Northern Ireland Water has urged the government to back its plan to tap into the potential of the water and wastewater infrastructure to tackle the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis with investment.

The company, which is funded by government rather than bills, highlighted how its programme of work can support national and international climate change mitigation goals.

Its plans for 2021-27 include planting one million trees and restoring peat bogs; building more renewable energy sources; switching to hydrogen economy; and using treatment works for district heating schemes.

Sara Venning, chief executive of NI Water said: “We are determined to tap into the largely unseen potential for NI Water to address climate change and restore biodiversity. We believe that our infrastructure, which includes significant land holdings and over 3,000 grid connected sites across Northern Ireland, can play a strategically important role in helping society to meet these challenges.”

This year the company began a demonstrator project with a 1MW electrolyser at a wastewater treatment works to demonstrate how electrolysis can increase processing capacity, reduce carbon emissions and improve flexibility in the electricity grid.

NI Water plans to switch its electricity consumption to 100 per cent renewable sources by 2027 (up from 43 at present) and ramp up its generation capacity to 200MW at a select number of its suitable sites.

The company said it is exploring converting heat created at wastewater works into district heating systems, having identified “potential customers with an interest in decarbonising their source of heating”.

It suggested utilising its 3,000 plus widely distributed grid-connected sites to house and deploy large-scale energy storage systems to assist the country’s effort to double its renewable generating capacity in the coming decade.

The company reported that its net operational carbon emissions reduced by 0.64 per cent from 79,328 tCO2e in 2019/20 to 78,822 tCO2e in 2020/21. It said an increase in energy consumption during the year caused a rise in greenhouse gas emissions intensity. The company is developing a net zero carbon route map with its pathway and aims to reach net zero by 2050.

During the previous investment period, PC13 that ran to March 2021, the company was restricted by funding, which it said hindered growth and constrained economic development in 116 towns and cities across the country.

NI Water is awaiting a final decision on whether it will be fully funded in the investment period PC21, which runs to 2027 and includes the work towards environmental targets.

In its 2020/21 report, NI Water noted it reduced serious and medium sewage pollution incidents to seven, against a target of 23.

It missed its performance indicator for reducing the number of properties at risk of sewer flooding over the 2015-21 period, which fell by 52 against a target of 62. It aims to remove 57 properties from its register of those at-risk during PC21.

Improving sewerage networks is a key goal of the plans to 2027. Work commenced this year on a £10 million upgrade to Belfast wastewater treatment works to increase secondary treatment capacity.