Southwest Water save £75,000 at the touch of a button!

Industry: Water

Application: Water Pumps system

Challenge:

Southwest Water has, at its core, three main strategic reservoirs: Wimbleball Lake on Exmoor, Colliford Lake on Bodmin Moor and Roadford Reservoir in Mid Devon the largest in the Southwest of England.

Working with Southwest Water’s Energy Manager Shane Fielding and Team Leader Nik Pester were looking to identify Energy saving opportunities. APDS, ABB’s local Drive Alliance Partner, identified three 630kw pumps at Roadford, that have been fitted with Low Harmonic ABB inverters. The installation was just over a year old and two of the pumps have been running almost continually since their installation. The drives control pumps that feed water to North Combe water treatment works, a main gateway for the supply of drinking water to North Devon.

APDS Solution:

APDS suggested the use of a non-intrusive use of an inbuilt feature of the latest ABB drives software, Flux Optimisation. By turning on flux optimisation and optimising the control, the current drawn by each motor was reduced by some 87 amperes.  With each pump running for some 8,000 hours each year this equates to a saving of around £25,000 per annum for each motor.

Benefits:

• Savings made at touch of a button
• £75,000 saved each year with no loss of performance
• Load sharing
• Low-cost solution

Conclusion:

Simple ABB software feature adds value to your business at the touch of a button

The Energy Optimise function optimises the motor flux so that total energy consumption and motor noise level are reduced when the drive operates below the nominal load. The total efficiency (motor and drive) can be improved by 1…20% depending on load torque and speed. Energy optimization is enabled by default. Note: With permanent magnet and synchronous reluctance motors, energy optimization is always enabled.

In Motor Control parameters go to group 45.

Footnote:

Please note these customer-approved stories have been collected since 2000. While some company names may have changed during this time, the principles and methods described to save energy or improve productivity are applicable today. contact APDS Ltd Bristol: 01179 822 049 www.apds.co.uk