Water officials and community leaders celebrated the operation of the CLWA’s newest field of beams Thursday, a 3.5-megawatt plot of solar panels expected to save Santa Clarita Valley ratepayers millions over the next couple of decades.

“These panels will reduce electricity costs by $20 million over the next 25 years,” said CLWA Vice President Bill Cooper. “This will transfer to savings for all of our ratepayers in the Santa Clarita Valley.”

Water officials also talked about the practical challenges of delivering the nearly 1 ton of water that the average SCV household uses each day, and how the power helps deliver it.

“Santa Clarita Valley residents use about 250 gallons of water per capita per day, which equates to moving about a ton, or 2,000 pounds, of water for each resident every day, 365 days a year,” said CLWA General Manager Dan Masnada. “It requires a tremendous amount of energy to serve that demand, at significant cost.”

The new array of solar panels, which follow the sun as it rotates to maximize their capacity for power generation, was built in addition to a 1-megawatt facility already already installed at the water agency’s Central Park headquarters.

When the original solar-panel field was built, the largest amount any public agency could create was the 1 megawatt.

The new solar power plant, when combined with the output of an existing 1-MW SunPower solar plant completed in December 2011, is expected to offset about one- third of the energy used at all facilities owned by the CLWA and the Santa Clarita Water District.

Both solar plants are located at the agency’s Rio Vista Water Treatment Plant.