Pump Management – Optimisation and Replacement
WRc have received funding from the Carbon Trust to continue work developing tools to support the water industry in updating pump management practice to take into account the need for energy efficiency and minimising whole life costs.
The collaborative Portfolio project CP348A Pump Management - Optimisation and Replacement is supported by 11 UK water utilities with specific input from the Pump Centre and AEMS pump test house.
CP348A has produced the first industry-wide, evidence-based, Whole Life Costing tool which incorporates the modelled deterioration of pump efficiency to determine when refurbishment/replacement of pumps is needed. The Carbon Trust funding will enable specific improvements to the model and will facilitate additional field testing where there are industry gaps in data. It will also support project implementation through integration with existing tools. The industr- wide energy and carbon benefits will also be quantified as part of this work.
The project approach and the Whole Life Costing tool aligns with the regulator OFWAT’s ‘common framework’ policy of evidence-based minimisation of asset whole life costs, and we are now looking for OFWAT’s acceptance of the outputs as a method for justifying investment.
Darren Hewerdine, Energy Optimisation Engineer at Veolia Water commented "This project has provided Veolia with a valuable evaluation tool which has already identified the need for a new pump with a £25K p.a. opex saving. This involves replacing a submersible borehole pumpset with an inherently more efficient vertical spindle pumpset."
Utilities which were not part of the original collaboration can join as part of the follow-on work and benefit from the large pooled resources and outputs. Pump users outside the water industry can also join and benefit from the project. Further information is available from
Leo Carswell.