The modernisation of hardware and software in a large scale water supply system has improved the overall operational effectiveness of the entire operation and delivered a 51% reduction in power consumption. It has also enabled the supplier to reduce outlet pressure, leading to an 8% fall in emergency call-outs.

In 2015, Samara Municipal Systems in Russia began a huge refurbishment programme with 37 booster pump stations. Whilst replacing obsolete or worn-out control equipment with modern, energy-efficient products was an important aspect of the upgrade, the primary focus was optimisation of the water supply system.

For this, they selected Aquatoria, a software solution developed especially for the water industry and built on Mitsubishi Electric‘s MAPS (Mitsubishi Adroit Process Software) SCADA package. Aquatoria function was to identify hidden operational inefficiencies, and reduce excess water pressure at the consumer side, and ensure efficiency of pumping operations and optimise pump selection.

Aquatoria water industry software

Aquatoria is a suite of integrated modules for MAPS that are dedicated to water supply control system optimisation, providing: application configuration to reduce total cost of ownership of the control system; adaptive control to save energy; analytical reports to help reduce leaks; a pump selection tool to drive energy savings and increase pump lifetime; a GEO module, and a process analysis tool with visual process monitor to save energy and reduce leaks.

A particular problem that had been highlighted was excessive water pressure at the consumer side. This created unnecessary energy consumption, and the high water pressure meant the supply system was prone to considerable water loss and leakage.

Having refurbished the 37 pumping stations to put the various pumps under the control of the Aquatoria solution was carried out to optimise the processes. Aquatoria provided virtual pressure meter software algorithms to optimise pressure, eliminating the need for individual pressure meters all over the city to measure consumer side water pressure, ensuring it did not exceed upper limits.

By controlling the variable speed drives in the pumping stations Aquatoria also made further pressure decrease possible, reducing the likelihood of leaks, lowering energy consumption, and maintaining even flow and pressure during times of high demand. Aquatoria’s pump efficiency monitoring algorithm allows further optimisation by estimating the efficiency of VSD-driven pumps, and switching them off when their efficiency drops below pre-set levels.

Improved SCADA implementation

Aquatoria identifies inefficient operation of equipment and highlight impending equipment 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.

Water supply and treatment plants generate more operational data than can be manually analysed for plant optimisation. Aquatoria performs continuous data analysis in the background, generating meaningful analytical reports and alerting staff when process performance begins to drift significantly from operational norms.

It was important to Samara Municipal Systems that the solution could be easily integrated and adapted by local systems integrators. This offers assurance of simple operations and maintenance through the life-cycle of the plant, with significantly reduced reliance on outside engineering support.

An asset monitoring and diagnostics module with GSM communications simplified maintenance of the complex distributed system. Data collected within a Mitsubishi Electric FX3U PLC is time-stamped and then transmitted over GSM telemetry protocol. The GSM communications also makes remote access of the PLC possible, enabling deep diagnostics to be performed through Mitsubishi Electric GX Works software.

Overall improvement

In addition to a 51% reduction in power consumption, reducing the outlet pressure led to an 8% fall in emergency call-outs while improving overall operational effectiveness of the entire operation.