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01/03/2010
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Vaughan chopper pumps, supplied by P&M Pumps, have cut costs caused by unplanned maintenance at Severn Trent Water's Netheridge, Gloucester
treatment works, and are now also achieving significant savings on energy consumption.
 The problem, according to works flow technician Jeff Beddall, was blockages and leaking glands on the existing pumps, installed to pump raw sewage from 20 metres below ground from wet wells to the inlet works.
To complicate matters, he explains that they were housed in a dry well classified as a 'confined space', requiring engineers to have breathing apparatus for health and safety. Unsurprisingly, contractors' maintenance costs were high - in fact, around œ100,000 for just one year.
Initially, Severn Trent Water operated one Vaughan chopper pump on a trial basis, and that unit is now being used as a stand-by on variable speed drive. Following the trial, additional pumps (12in discharge PE12Us, with 90kW, 970rpm motors) were installed and the process now involves four chopper pumps, operating continuously at fixed speed.
Says Beddall: "We have achieved significant savings on labour and electricity [and] the blockages and leaking glands with the original pumps have been eliminated."
P&M Pumps advises that retrofitting a chopper pump into a problem area improves the whole process and is self-financing, with payback periods of less than one year.
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Author
Brian Tinham
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