Quantum Kept The Water Flowing For NWL
The Northumbrian Water team discovered working on a small, rural pumping station MCC has its challenges. Keeping the pumps running and available whilst the Motor control centre was going to require a solution.
Quantum Controls expertise was needed.
Michael Binks from Northumbrian Water contacted us for our support. Working in unison with Quantum’s Controls’ Daniel Fitzsimons the partnership soon achieved a solution.
THE PROBLEM
Their site’s telemetry is critical for alarms and monitoring. Space on site was limited due to its location and the small size of the main building. Initial thoughts were to look at traditional temporary power supplies such as generators.
Yet removing the main MCC would mean the generator would limit options for the control of the pumps and the telemetry system would be out of action.
Other issues include the site needing regular manning, continuously changing fuel management which was difficult to predict when driven by demand and weather conditions.
THE SOLUTION
Following discussions, Daniel and Michael got to work on creating a containerised solution that would suit the project’s needs.
Feeding a bespoke container fitted by Quantum Controls, the team utilised the sites existing power supply and isolation point. This housed a distribution board feeding two 75kw variable speed drive panels and a building services distribution board, providing power and lighting back to the main building.
The remote telemetry unit was removed from the existing MCC and re-housed in the container in a new telemetry housing panel. This was then wired back to the original phone line from the main building.
Quantum’s unique hire panel design can also contain Siemens Ultrasonic level detectors.
This was utilised on-site, putting a new ultrasonic head into the well and feeding this back to the container.
We also wired the existing floats from the site back to the hire panels to maintain the failsafe system. Ready for the changeover we installed a temporary junction box just inside the main building to terminate the pump cables and cable these back to the container.
These were cabled from the container side.
A temporary junction box was installed just inside the main building to terminate the pump cables and cable these back to the container, these were cabled from the container side ready for the changeover.
Once the system was ready the standby pump was transferred to the containerised solution whilst the duty continued to run. Transferring power from the supply to the existing MCC to our power supply made the standby pump the duty.
Once commissioned and proven to be stable we transferred the last remaining pump power supply from the old MCC to the temporary solution.
RESULT
The Northumbrian Water team and Quantum Controls successfully worked together to commission the telemetry system. This led the site to run fully autonomously with no difference for the site’s operators.
This freed up all the available space in the main building to remove the existing MCC and install the new bespoke MCC. Once the new MCC had been installed by Northumbrian Water, the power and control were transferred back to the main MCC. The cables and supplied hire equipment were removed back into the container where it remained available for the non-intervention period of one week.
Michael Binks, Northumbrian Water was delighted by the project’s outcome:
“The supply of the fitted-out container from Quantum Controls saved us time and money. It was also really quiet, which was well received by our neighbours. We used our pumps and electricity supply so had no problems with diesel management which can be unpredictable and costly. It was safe and easier to manage on a site where access was restricted”
CONCLUSION
The customer was happy with our work. The container was removed from the site back to our repair shop in Prudhoe for strip and testing. Our unique fleet of hire equipment from Quantum Controls can solve many issues on site when upgrading full MCCs or control panels.
Our expertise and equipment allow sites to continue to run with very little downtime.
Let Quantum Controls support you and help you solve your project’s pain points.
We make sure that upgrading motor or pump control equipment on-site couldn’t be easier.
Why not discuss your requirements with one of our friendly, engineers who will happily discuss options for you?
Contact us today at: [email protected] or call 0330 9000 24