Tyco scores $120M contract at Australia's largest desal plant

Australian pipe manufacturer Tyco Water said today it scored a A$150 million (US$120 million) contract to supply energy-efficient piping for Australia's largest desalination project, planned in the state of Victoria.

The 53-mile piping system contains 6,200 steel pipes that use the company's flow-management technology to efficiently deliver water and reduce the energy needed to pump water. Additionally, Tyco says the pipes are manufactured on a new production line that requires less water and energy than traditional manufacturing, and are made from advanced materials that are expected to safeguard the system from leaks for decades.

Water losses are a significant problem, with the U.S. Geological Survey reporting nearly 6 billion gallons of losses per day in 1995, including metering errors and firefighter use. Pumping the water that is lost requires 10 billion to 15 billion kilowatt-hours of energy each year, according to Western Resource Advocates.

Tyco's piping is to be used to connect the desalination plant to the water supply of the Melbourne area, which has faced severe droughts in recent years. The plant is expected to desalinate seawater into 40 billion gallons of drinking water per year, enough for about 3.5 million people.

The A$2.9 billion plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2011. It's being built by AquaSure, a consortium of France's Degremont, Australian construction firm Theiss and banker Macquarie. Australian renewable energy developer AGL Energy is building a 63-megawatt wind farm that is expected to meet all the energy requirements of the plant.

The plant is expected to dwarf Australia's Gold Coast plant, producing 12.45 billion gallons of water per year (see Australia readies $1.2B desal plant).

Tyco Water is a division of Tyco Flow Control, which also supplies systems for wastewater treatment, and is a unit of Tyco International (NYSE:TYC).