Testing the waters – Small hydro turbine generates power for vault equipment

South Windsor, Conn., Aug. 28, 2025 — Treating and delivering high-quality drinking water takes a lot of energy. As part of our efforts to continually explore ways of reducing our energy costs for customers, our water professionals began testing a hydro turbine at one of our pressure reducing valve sites, which now generates electricity to power the equipment at the site. 

Basically, it works like a pump in reverse. Normally, you plug in a water pump to get power, which turns an impeller to move water from one area to another. With the hydro turbine, the energy generated naturally by water flowing through the pressure reduction pipes turns the impeller to generate electricity. 

The small turbine generates enough electricity to power all the equipment in the vault such as lighting and communications equipment that sends data to our operators, who can monitor the vault remotely. Power generated by the turbine also gets stored in a battery for use in low-flow periods.  

The turbine saves time and money, reduces our carbon footprint and remote monitoring of the site allows operators to focus on other duties.