Our energy strategy

As a significant consumer of electricity, Urban Utilities is implementing our Energy Strategy Roadmap, to address our energy challenges and opportunities. These initiatives include:

• Identifying opportunities to reduce energy consumption
• Energy auditing and metering
• Investigating and optimising alternative energy generation options
• Research and development for new energy sources

In addition to delivering cost efficiencies, our Energy Strategy supports our environmental leadership in reducing our emissions and provides growth opportunities in the areas of waste to energy and renewables.

Our growing portfolio of generation assets are distributed across our service area and include:

Cogeneration

At the Oxley Creek and Luggage Point Resource Recovery Centres, the bio solids (sludge removed during the treatment process) undergo a separate treatment to produce biogas. Cogeneration units capture the biogas and produce up to 40 per cent of the plants’ electricity needs, decreasing our reliance on the electricity grid.

Solar

Over a thousand solar panels have been installed at 13 sites across our service area, cutting grid power use at our sewerage treatment facilities by more than 20 per cent. We are one of the first water utilities in Queensland to use solar power in this way, future-proofing sewage treatment with renewable energy.