How Rob Welke Packages Five Decades of Experience Into One Pumping System Master Class
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ob Welke is an Australian water professional with 50 years of experience split nearly evenly between the municipal and irrigation sectors. Throughout it all, he has focused on energy efficiency, and his experience has led him to look past just the pump to the system as a whole. Through his company, the WATER PUMPING INSTITUTE, Mr. Welke runs a Pumping System Master Class for irrigators that helps them put precise numbers on the energy use and cost savings of running their pumping systems. In this interview, Mr. Welke explains the concepts behind the course and lays out its advantages for irrigators. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
30 | IRRIGATION LEADER | February 2022
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After 25 years with SA Water, I went into the irrigation industry. I deliberately chose it because I wanted to pursue a career in promoting energy efficiency in an area where people were listening more, and I saw a real opening in irrigation. Over the last 28 years in irrigation, I’ve conducted a lot of energy audits of pumping station and pumping system designs. You could say that throughout the last 50 years of my career, I’ve had a pressure gauge in one hand and a flow meter in the other. It’s also significant that I’ve never sold product. That makes me quite unique in the irrigation industry. irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROB WELKE.
Rob Welke: I started my life out on a wheat and sheep farm in Mid North South Australia. One thing that defines me most is that my father always said, “Don’t follow the world; create your own.” That’s exactly what I’ve done. I spent three parts of my career following others, but I didn’t feel that it was right, so I’ve gone and created my own company and training course. I started my tertiary education studying technology and mechanical engineering. I later did some training courses with Irrigation Australia, a sister company of the Irrigation Association in the United States that also provides training and assessment qualifications. I was a member of the American Society of Irrigation Consultants for a number of years, and I’m currently a member of Irrigation Australia and Pumping Industry Australia. I’ve spent 53 years in pumping and hydraulics, the last 50 as a paraprofessional mechanical engineer. Paraprofessional means just under the full professional level but having most of the attributes of a full professional engineer. At the point at which I stopped my bachelor of technology studies, I went to an employment agency and said I wanted to do a fitter and turner’s apprenticeship. I was matched with the government engineering water department, which is now called SA Water. Within a short time, I was attached to the pumping engineer. My principal role was to monitor the energy efficiency of all our major pumping plants. We’re talking about 175,000 horsepower of pumps, up to about 7,500 horsepower each, and pipelines up to 1.6 meters (5.25 feet) in diameter. To put this into perspective, South Australia is the driest state of the driest continent in the world. It is heavily reliant on pumping. In a dry year, South Australia’s capital city, Adelaide, which has a population of 1.5 million, requires 90 percent of its water supply to be pumped 60 miles from the River Murray over 1,200‑foot ranges. Five major pumping schemes supply this water.
