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Project Updates
SOUTH WEST WATER SEIZES ENERGY SAVING OPPORTUNITY
When South West Water (SWW) identified an energy-saving opportunity at its Restormel Water Treatment Works near Lostwithiel in Cornwall, it called in ABB and one of its Value Providers, APDS.
The plant uses eight variable speed drives (VSDs) to control the motors used to run the reservoir pumps, altering the speed of the motors to meet the actual pumping demand. The drives operated their cooling fans constantly, even when the drive was not being used for pumping.
The fans are used to maintain various parts of the drive enclosure at temperatures within the drive’s operating range. The fans involved were the door fan, the main drive fan and the fan used to cool the LCL harmonic filters.
An ABB timer circuit was added to the internal 115V supply to switch the fans off via a relay, half an hour after the drive is shut down. The resultant savings in energy costs amount to around £1000 for each of the eight drives. With the retrofitted solution costing £1000, the payback time for each drive is only 12 months.
www.abb.com
PROJECT TO UPGRADE WASTEWATER PUMPING STATION
Brazil’s SAMAE - Municipal Autonomous Water and Sewage Service - started a project to upgrade and improve a raw water pumping station. Improvements were needed to modernise the system, which had relied on some unreliable and obsolete equipment which was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.
In addition to modernising the installed machinery, the project also aimed to increase the power of the motors and increase the efficiency, capacity and availability of the station. WEG was able to help achieve this goal by providing three W60 line motors and frequency inverters for use on the station’s motor pumps, to help achieve more accurate and precise control of raw water flow.
In addition, WEG also provided start-up and commissioning services for some of the motors.
www.weg.net
FOUL AND SURFACE WATER PUMPING STATIONS FOR TOWER VAULTS
TT Pumps was asked to supply replacement foul and surface water pumping stations at Tower Vaults, an underground retail mall adjacent to the Tower of London.
TT Pumps received an enquiry for a 400 volt 3-phase set using self-priming pumps and operated by float switches, with a control panel including volt free contacts. Specification requirements included gate valves and non-return valves on the discharge of each pump, along with a 1.4m suction head and discharge run.
The project also required a Surface Mounted Sewage Set to pump foul water from toilets and restaurant units. This needed a 5m static head, 20m run, volt free contacts, and a 3,500l capacity.
A key project challenge was the severely restricted access to the basement. The pumping stations and components would need to overcome these issues and be easy to install and maintain.
TT Pumps supplied a Triple Pump Set, consisting of a self-priming surface mounted pump.
It also supplied an Above Ground Packaged Pumping Station with a 3500L polyethene chamber housing and pneumatic level control with LCD display for foul waste from toilets and restaurant units. A manual hand pump, and emergency surface mounted generator socket were also provided.
www.ttpumps.com
Intelligent pump monitoring solution for chocolate factory
An investment in Armstrong Technology’s Design Envelope pumps has paid for itself in just seven months, achieving energy cost savings of 90% within 90 days.
Armstrong Fluid Technology’s Design Envelope pump technology was specified for a cooling system energy upgrade at La Ronda Chocolate Factory in Dubai.
Following a walk-through, Armstrong suggested using its Design Envelope 4200h end-suction pumps with integrated intelligent sensorless control, which are said to be able to offer savings of up to 90% compared to traditional constant speed systems.
The integrated inverters in the Design Envelope 4200h pumps save the added cost and technical complexity of installing variable frequency drives. At La Ronda, these pumps are connected to the global Pump Manager database, allowing Armstrong to support the local team through performance tracking, and alerts to any smart device, anywhere. Pump Manager is a cloud-based application that uses Armstrong Design Envelope pumps’ embedded intelligence and connectivity to provide performance reports to system operators.
With this information, operators can make changes and address issues to optimise HVAC performance. Online trending and analysis across multiple parameters on single pumps, or on an aggregated basis for multiple pumps, assists in identifying performance degradation and facilitates a predictive and proactive approach. Pump Manager will, for example, report issues such as excessive vibration, pump in hand, risk of cavitation or a dead head, should they start to occur.
In the three months after the installation, the plant was able to save 118,355 kWh of energy.
