Industry: Leisure
Application: Pumps
Site Challenge: The Aquarium features a 2.5 million litre seawater tank, which, at 10.5 m, is Britain’s biggest. Keeping the inhabitants of the tanks healthy involves constant pumping of water at the correct temperature, resulting in a substantial energy bill. John Selwood, Engineering Manager for the facility, says: “We needed to save energy; however, we have nine pumps for the tanks that must be on all the time, with varying flow and pressure.
The constant operation means that reliability and accurate control are vital. Although the Aquarium’s pumps were operated by an automatic control system using PLCs, flow and pressure were controlled provided by a manual throttle valve. This resulted in surplus energy as the pumps were running at 100% speed, with only a proportion of its output being used.
APDS Solution:
Electrical contractor Drew & Co and APDS were asked to investigate the pumping and heating systems and suggest ways to save energy.
Drew’s managing director, Andrew Botterill, says: “Because the pumping system provides essential life support to the fish in the tanks, it was essential that we install reliable control systems. ABB’s drives give us the reliability we need. We have used a large number of them with no failures and I have complete faith in the reliability of ABB’s technology and products. Constant operation of the pumps meant that the installation of the drives had to be a hot changeover, with the minimum possible downtime of the pump. We installed each drive in only two hours.”
APDS supplied Nine ABB variable speed drives which were installed, ranging from 7.5 to 18.5 kW. Single drives now control the duty and standby pumps sets, changing automatically to the duty pump as required. Pressure transducers in the pump output provide a feedback signal to the drive, allowing the throttle valves to be kept fully open, allowing the VSD to determine the correct pump speed for the desired flow rate. Following installation, energy consumption figures were again monitored.
The initial assessment was that the client would save £15,000 on energy.
Benefits:
- £15,000 annual energy saving
- Minimal downtime to protect tank inhabitants
Conclusion:
Three months after the drives were installed, we estimated that the aquarium would save even more – £15,600,” says Botterill.
APDS’ MD Alan Jones commented, “We are delighted to have partnered here with Drew and Co”.
Botterill added “We aim to build a support mechanism for the client and APDS to help with ongoing maintenance. We have a good relationship with APDS and now use ABB drives exclusively. They have trained our staff and provide excellent service. We know we can get a drive from them at very short notice, whatever the time of day, so we can always get a drive to our clients in case of an emergency.”
Footnote:
Please note these customer-approved stories are 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
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