WATER & WASTE TREATMENT A THIRST FOR EFFICIENCY
WEG has supplied motor technology for a replacement critical water pump at Battersea Shaft Pumping Station. The huge vertical turbine pump was installed with minimal disruption and no outages
B
attersea Power Station is a beacon along London’s skyline, and is famous for supplying over 20 per cent of all
London’s electricity. But, what about Battersea Shaft? Battersea Shaft Pumping Station serves the Thames Water Ring Main, a critical component in London’s water infrastructure. The Thames Water Ring Main, formerly
known as the London Water Ring Main, plays a critical role in supplying drinking water in the capital. Originally built between 1988 and 1993, the structure forms a 50-mile ring of 2.54m diameter concrete pipe. Primarily, this is used to transfer drinking water from water treatment plants in the Thames and Lea basins into the city. The main ring lies between ten and 65
meters below ground level and passes through 21 wells that serve as supply, storage and pumping stations. One of these pumping stations is Battersea Shaft. Battersea Shaft consists of a large 30-
meter-deep vertical shaft, containing six pumps that can supply multiple areas of London with drinkable water. However, increasing development in the city has made it necessary to remodel and replan the network to supply this new demand. Due to this increasing development,
predictions suggest that there will be a significant shortage of drinking water capacity in the coming years. To accommodate a growing — and increasingly thirsty population — the station required additional pumping low capacity. This necessitated new equipment in the form of a pump, pump motor and variable speed drive (VSD).
With guidance from a team of experts, it
was decided to replace one of the 30 mega- litre per day pumps with a new 45 mega-litre per day option — 45 mega-litre was the maximum limit, due to physical limitations of the environment. However, the real challenge of this
replacement was due to the constant demand of drinking water in the capital. To minimise disruption, the pump needed to be replaced without stopping operations. This necessity had a major influence on the design and construction of the pump, and the overall project itself.
Removing the old pump’s headworks
All images supplied courtesy of Stantec
without having to resort to cuts in the supply to the London water network. For this application, WEG engineers, along with
Bedford Pumps, decided the best option was a water-cooled motor design. The existing pump and motor had extensive
fault detection instrumentation and a monitoring system. Therefore, the same range and functionality was installed in the new pump. In addition, due to the uniqueness of the location, the replacement of any wiring between the electrical equipment and the pump was invasive and required downtime, so all new instrumentation had to be selected to be compatible with the existing wiring. This further complicated the motor selection process. Thankfully, WEG is an
expert in delivering motors for unique pumping applications. For this application, WEG chose a 450 kW Master Line Water Cooled induction motor. These motors stand out for
It was decided that only the pump that
needed to be replaced would be taken offline, enabling the rest of the system to continue operating as normal. However, to achieve this, detailed planning of the pump’s removal, installation and commissioning was required. Pump supplier, Bedford Pumps supported
this entire process. Through the company’s close relationship with motor manufacturer, WEG, the team were able to replace the pump,
the flexibility of their electrical and mechanical functionalities. The designs are easily customised, making them interchangeable with already existing motors. For the Battersea Shaft Pumping Station, WEG
committed to achieve 96 per cent efficiency performance. Once the project was complete, this figure was tested and not only achieved it, but exceeded it with a greater margin. Following completion in January 2020, the
pump is now fully commissioned and in full service. What’s notable, is that designing the new equipment to work with existing infrastructure, together with detailed construction planning, massively minimised the installation period for the project. And crucially, the project avoided pumping station outages. The Battersea Shaft Pumping Station is
another of WEG’s successful projects for the water sector. WEG motors are also fitted on the largest river water extraction pumping station in the United Kingdom, as well as the largest pumping station in Ireland.
New pump being lifted 34 MARCH 2021 | PROCESS & CONTROL
WEG
www.weg.net
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