NiDeEco is already in use in twenty wastewater treatment plants around Germany, mostly small and medium-sized plants. In each case, power consumption has been successfully reduced by at least twenty percent. This significantly reduces the burden on the operators, which can be illustrated using a population equivalent, which describes the capacity of a wastewater treatment plant. For instance, for a plant designed for a population of 10,000, a 20 % reduction means calculated annual savings of at least 17,000 euros. Furthermore, the wastewater discharge fee is waived for the plant operators for three years if they succeed in reducing one of the three relevant discharge values – the nitrogen or phosphorous concentrations, or the chemical oxygen demand – by twenty percent. With the system from H2Ortner, it’s generally easy to achieve nitrogen concentration reductions on this order of magnitude. Since the investment costs for the controller module are relatively low, they can be recouped through the waiver of the wastewater charge alone in many cases. “This applies even to plants serving a population of under 7,000, which has a lower wastewater charge,” emphasizes Ortner. “Thus, NiDeEco pays for itself from the very first day.”