System for power quality, energy management and pump automation

Actual situation

In a large urban city, the technology for supplying fresh water is getting old. Although the pumping stations and the infrastructure are in good condition, the maintenance and repair costs are continuously and extremely increasing. Electrical monitoring of the entire system is only available to a limited extent, and if so, only partially.

Task

The plant availability and thus the security of supply with fresh water is to be increased to the optimum. Maintenance intervals are to be reduced to a minimum through trend analyses of electrical as well as other physical parameters. In addition, the operator wants to optimise the very high energy demand, as the pumps are controlled (on/off) rather than regulated. It is also important for the operator to significantly improve the planability and predictability of the entire system.

Solution

In order to meet the above requirements, a multi-level system is implemented. This includes a control system application in a main control room, which in turn is split to the individual pump stations. The data is read from the central and subordinate control systems, analysed and measures are derived from it. Measuring devices for recording and evaluating the power quality provide essential measurement data. These have a great influence on the longevity and process reliability of the pumps and system. In addition, electrical as well as other physical parameters are collected at pump level. This means that the maintenance status of the respective pump as well as the system status of the plant are continuously recorded and visualised directly on site as well as in the control systems. In the process, individual power quality parameters are also already collected on a pump basis. It is important to mention that even in the event of a power failure, the measurements are backed up via a UPS (5×3 minutes) to prevent data loss.

Further information