An upgrade of the water treatment and supply system in Samara, Russia, has seen the implementation of innovative software-driven process optimisation built on Mitsubishi Electric MAPS Scada. The optimisation and control solution, implemented across 37 boost pumping stations, has improved operational efficiency, eliminated leaks and reduced total cost of ownership.
Samara is home to a population in excess of a million people, and is an important social, political, economic, industrial and cultural centre. Water treatment and supply services fall under the provenance of Samara Municipal Systems. In 2015 the company began a refurbishment programme at its pump stations. While replacing obsolete or control equipment with modern, energy-efficient products was an important aspect of the upgrade, the primary focus was on the efficiency of the overall water supply system.
Optimisation built on software
The goal of this upgrade was to eliminate hidden operational inefficiencies and enable excessive water pressure at the consumer side to be reduced, while ensuring maximum efficiency of pumping operations. To achieve this, Samara Municipal Services implemented Aquatoria, a software solution developed especially for the water industry and built on Mitsubishi Electric’s MAPS (Mitsubishi Adroit Process Software) Scada. Aquatoria reduces the total cost of ownership of the control system through a suite of integrated modules for MAPS dedicated to water supply control and optimisation.
Having refurbished the pumping stations to put the various pumps under the control of Mitsubishi Electric VSDs, implementation of the Aquatoria solution was carried out to optimise the processes. A particular problem that had been highlighted was excessive water pressure at the consumer side, which impacted on energy consumption but also meant the supply system was prone to considerable leakage and water loss.
Eliminating the need for individual meters around the city to measure consumer-side water pressure and ensure it does not exceed upper limits, Aquatoria provides software algorithms to keep the optimal pressure. The effectiveness of the VSDs in the pumping station cabinets enabled Aquatoria to make even further pressure decreases possible. This helped to reduce the likelihood of leaks and unsustainable energy consumption, while maintaining even flow and pressure during times of high demand.
Improved implementation through MAPS
Addressing the shortcomings of traditional PLC/scada integration tools, MAPS has been designed to offer value throughout the design, engineering and operational phases of a project. Providing a standards-based approach to projects for simpler implementation, it also integrates a number of program modules specifically tailored to the water industry.
Importantly, the solution could be easily installed and adapted by local systems integrators. Aquatoria also makes it easy for operators to edit the parameters and configuration of installed pumping and other control equipment, thus reducing training requirements. An optimisation software module is also provided to control the pressure in the water distribution network.
The system identifies inefficient operation of equipment and highlights impending failure, giving staff time to rectify issues before they become real problems. An interactive map view helps engineers to respond quickly and efficiently when operational problems are highlighted at remote locations.
Finally, an asset monitoring and diagnostics module with GSM communications simplifies maintenance of the complex distributed systems. Data collected within a Mitsubishi Electric FX3U PLC is time-stamped and then transmitted over GSM telemetry protocol, enabling deep diagnostics to be performed through Mitsubishi Electric GX Works software.
Results
With the upgrade complete, the performance and energy consumption of the pumping stations was monitored closely over the first four months of 2016 to gauge the effectiveness of the VSD installation in combination with the implementation of the adaptive control algorithm. It was found that total power consumption was reduced by 631 660 kW, a decrease of over 51%.
Also notable was the fact that reducing the outlet pressure led to an eight percent fall in emergency callouts. Samara Municipal Systems can now make more efficient use of its workforce and an effective evaluation of operations based on ‘water supply per person’ considerations. These criteria are based on both energy efficiency data and water leakage information, and reflect the benefits of the approach to reduce total cost of ownership.
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