Photo Courtesy of The Peachtree City Water and Sewerage Authority

In 2017, the PCWASA worked with WEG to retrofit their master lift station, which collects wastewater from all the other sewage lift stations in this municipal sewage system and transports it to the nearby wastewater treatment plant.

The master lift station operates 6 submersible grinder pumps – (3) 60-horsepower and (3) 30-horsepower – to move wastewater out of the tank and through the pipes to the wastewater treatment facility. The lift station had been relying on float switches and back-up pressure sensors to indicate high pressure in the collection tank. As the pressure in the tank increased, the signal would be sent to the pumps to accelerate to full speed so the tank could be emptied. Operating the pumps in this way had been causing excessive wear and tear on the pumps, so the PCWASA took a proactive step to reduce maintenance costs and extend the mean-time-between-repair for these pumps.

Initially, the PCWASA discussed retrofitting the system with analog sensors and self-starters, but eventually decided that WEG Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) with Pump Genius automation would be a more economical solution. The CFW 11 Pump Genius Multiplex system was selected for its ability to automate the pump motors, which could be programmed to start and stop in a way that would equalize the run times on each pump.

In December 2017, 6 WEG VFDs were installed at the master lift station – all controlled by WEG Pump Genius. This self-contained, alternating system monitors the runtime of the individual pumps and automatically operates the pumps in a rotating sequence based on each pump’s runtime. So the pump with the least amount of runtime will take the lead when demand requires it.

Having intelligent VFDs that essentially “talk” to each other allows pumps to be accelerated or backed off when they are not needed, thereby reducing energy usage and spreading out the amount of wear and tear on the pumps over a longer period of time. The MTBR for these submersible grinder pumps is expected to double, saving the municipality a significant amount in maintenance costs.

 

Pump Genius from WEG

Pump Intelligence to Your System

Pumps, pipeline and fittings can get seriously damaged if pressure or flow are out of control and such occurrences are not tracked early.

The Pump Genius is a customizable feature of WEG drives that enables your standard VSD to become dedicated for pumping systems. It ensures accurate pressure / flow control throughout the processing cycle, starting with raw water and its usage, ending on wastewater treatment.

With an easy-to-use programming wizard, Pump Genius helps you to minimize downtime and maximize energy savings. Everything you need is selecting one of the three options that best fits to your application.

Pump Genius Simplex – The main characteristic of the Pump Genius Simplex is the control of one pump using for this a frequency inverter that will control your speed as required by the user demand.

Pump Genius Multiplex – The main characteristic of the Pump Genius Multiplex is the control of two or more pumps in parallel with each pump being driven by its respective inverter. One of the inverter is the master and then selects which pumps will operate in order to keep/control the process value of the pumping system. An alternation between their activation is also performed, making it possible an equal use of the pumps.

Pump Genius Multipump – The main characteristic of the Pump Genius Multipump is the control of two or more pumps in parallel using only one frequency inverter. The inverter selects which pumps will operate in order to keep/control the process value of the pumping system. An alternation between their activation is also performed, making it possible an equal use of the pumps. It can be configured in two manners, fixed or floating control.