At Highland Valley Copper Operations in British Columbia, potable water is provided from three deep wells connected to a booster station that pumps to a potable water treatment plant.
The original pumping system ran continuously, but in 2011 we added variable frequency drives that only pump what is required based on current demand. This has reduced the water withdrawal from the wells by 57% and has cut the energy required to pump water by 39%, saving 341 megawatt hours of energy per year.
This case study was originally published in our 2011 Sustainability Report.
