S4 Project work finalist in Australian Water Association Awards

S4 Project delegates at the AWA Gala dinner. Left to right: Dr. Jon Knott (UOW), Dr. Heri Bustamante (Sydney Water), Dr. Nicola Nelson (Sydney Water), Prof. Shi Xue Dou (UOW), Ruben Muller (Sydney Water), Prof. Danny Sutanto (Sydney Water), Con Himonas (ARENA), Prof. Hua Kun Liu (UOW), Dr. Khay See (UOW).

We’re thrilled to announce our S4 Project work on Increasing Energy Resilience in Sydney Water through Novel Energy Storage and Management Solutions For Sewage Pumping Stations was shortlisted as a finalist in the Australian Water Association’s Research Innovation Award category. The nomination was based on highly-acclaimed work on characterising the Bondi Sewage Pumping Station and designing an appropriate renewable energy generation and storage system that was recognised as one of the top 11 papers at OZWater’18 – the Australian water industry’s premier conference.

The winner of the Research Innovation Award was announced at a Gala dinner on March 8th, and while we missed out on the top prize members of the team made a great showing at the event and vowed to put in an even stronger nomination next year.

The renewable energy system that was designed based on the nominated work was installed at the Bondi Sewage Pumping Station in late-2018 with a temporary lithium-ion battery pack, and already Sydney Water has evidence that the system increases its energy resilience. This system benchmarking will continue through 2019, and the sodium-ion battery pack will be installed in early 2020.

Congratulations to the team from Sydney Water, including Dr. Nicola Nelson, Dr. Heri Bustamante, Ruben Muller and Peter Anders for all of their efforts and dedication to bringing this work to life. Special thanks also to the team from UOW, including Professor Shi Xue Dou, Professor Danny Sutanto, Professor Kashem Muttaqi, Sean Elphick and Dr. Jon Knott.

We would like to thank our industry and funding partners: the Australian Renewable Energy Agency; Liao Ning Hong Cheng Electric Power Co.; Hebei ANZ New Energy Co.; McNair Technology Co.; and Sydney Water for their continued support of the S4 Project.