Climate change has brought energy use and energy efficiency very much to the fore and all businesses now take the subject very seriously. Water companies typically use millions of kWh each year to pump sewage so it is important to know how well you are using this energy.
The problem with sewage pumping stations is that their energy use is very much dependent on the weather. If it rains, you pump a greater volume and you use more energy. It follows that simply monitoring the energy consumption of a sewage pumping station, whether daily, weekly or monthly, tells you very little about how efficiently you are operating and whether you are wasting energy (and money, of course!). In truth, it tells you more about the weather than it does about energy efficiency!
We have found that the best measure of efficiency is kWh per unit volume (e.g. kWh/Ml) expressed as a daily average. We call this Specific Energy Consumption or SEC. This SEC is still not independent of the volume pumped in a day but, for any particular station, SEC is a predictable function of daily volume.
Our SECMaster product installs at the pumping station and monitors the daily electricity consumption and the daily volume pumped. SECMaster “knows” the correct relationship between SEC and daily volume for that site. It calculates the daily average SEC and compares this figure with the expected SEC for that day’s pumped volume. SECMaster will generate an alarm if the actual SEC is abnormal compared to what is expected. Alarms are issued via a relay interface and via an sms to a mobile telephone.
Daily data are stored on a memory card and transmitted to a website where graphs are available and data may be downloaded to your own computer system.
So far, in trials, SECMaster has shown:
- When heaters have been left on
- When ad hoc changes to controls have worsened efficiency
- When plant has been left running
SECMaster helps you manage your energy use better by identifying when waste happens and alerting you so that corrective action can be taken.
The first SECMaster units are currently being tested and will be available to customers soon.
Please contact us for more details and to be kept informed of developments.
