Booster Pump Station Mods Near Completion

Almost a year ago we began a small add-on contract to modify the control programs at two of the most critical booster pump stations.  Modifications were necessary to work toward obtaining full capacity from the stations.  Due to loss of a few 400HP 514RPM variable speed- driven pump impellers, the City had reduced the maximum speed of the VFDs to 80 percent.  These stations had become a bottleneck in the system, causing the City to tell some developers they could no longer tie into the City sewer system.

Why so long?  The first step was to verify the current operation  of the stations. Unfortunately, the stations only run during peak rain events, so months went by before opportunity presented itself to witness operation.  A report followed and due to some snafu ( I suspect in our transmittal process) the report didn’t get into the hands of the approving engineer in a timely fashion.  Once approval was obtained, we made the changes in a few weeks and again waited for months for peak rain events to checkout the system.

We’ve had a few limited instances of running under light load to witness so far, so the basic functionality has bee checked.  Meanwhile, we are on 7×24 watch for a big rain, with the engineer’s and city’s cell numbers in hand, all on call to witness…..