Pumping station failures
August 1st 2007

Pump and control system failures on small to medium sized pumping stations are creating a major problem for many UK water companies. Peter Costello of Siemens Automation & Drives outlines the problem and offers a potential solution

There are thousands of small to medium sized pumping stations located around the UK which service small estates, public sector and private premises, pumping sewage into the existing system. The water industry itself often calls them 'package' units, forming a complete system,including sump,pumps, valves and controls.

It is in these stations that threats to the surrounding urban environment are increasing, primarily because of the changing nature of society. Modern society thinks nothing of flushing and pouring all sorts of waste down into the sewage system, everything from inorganic solid through to sanitary ware and synthetic fibre bags.

Furthermore, the growth of fast food restaurants, hotels and restaurants in our town centres has given rise to increasing amounts of inorganic solids, such as fat, grease and detergents within sewage systems.

A problematic scenario is detecting when the pumps are poorly performing due to inefficiency, rather than a genuine fault that will prevent the pump from functioning. Pumps therefore fail to push sewage out into the main sewage system with nowhere to go but out into the environment.

Because of the location of many holding stations, that environment can often be town centres, retail premises and domestic properties.

Simultaneously, the Environment Agency is placing increasingly stringent demands on water companies to increase the water quality flowing from their pumping stations as well as limiting overflow and spillage issues. In particular, the European Community Directive on Urban Waste Water Treatment that has an objective to protect the environment from the adverse effects of sewage discharges.The Directive sets treatment levels on the basis of sizes of sewage discharges and the sensitivity of waters receiving the discharges.

If Environment Agency regulations and consents are not met,water and sewerage companies can face substantial fines.As a result, entire sewage station networks are now regulated to ensure assets are operated responsibly and within the framework of the Directive.

To enable assets to meet these standards,particularly where pumping stations are visited and checked less frequently, intelligent motor controllers and level measurement devices offer a potential reduction in capital and operating costs by reducing maintenance budgets and identifying potential problems before failure occurs.

Operating costs benefit from intelligent devices, particularly by the clarity and speed of information back to the PLC. Accurate data on motor protection can be relayed and motor load can also be detected to quickly identify dry running conditions and overall motor efficiency. Due to local recording capabilities, the information captured can be accessed at any time, increasing the detection time of faults or leaks. Communication is increased as the device can now be operated independently of the central control system,which reduces the need for unnecessary call outs.

The type of information communicated via telemetry link is also improved through intelligent devices. The current lack of ability for equipment to differentiate between spurious operation and a more serious fault becomes less of a problem with more sophisticated receptors and I/O modules.

In terms of capital expenditure, the Simocode ProV for example, can reduce costs by as enclosure size can be reduced.This might mean for example that planning permission to house such systems is easier to obtain. Intelligent systems can offer a whole package solution which rivals those placed in larger more sophisticated pumping stations, including motor overload and control system components, thermistor protection, standard relays, timers and counters, to create systems which can have a significant impact on efficiency and costs.

With the addition of a Siemens Smart level controller (Such as the Sitrans LUC-500), data such as Pump Efficiency & Pumped Volume can be retrieved. This data makes it easier to plan maintenance and help predict when a Pump is going to fail.

Furthermore, the ability to link serially to a local PLC reduces PLC size and the number of input/output modules required.