Water & Wastewater Treatment

The PumPing STaTion - PumP and ValVe SuPPlemenT 2016 5 particular. It's mainly being used for project work; much less so, I think, for replacing pumps within operations. And yet, various press reports have suggested that Totex could yield efficiencies of up to 15% if it was applied in a holistic approach to the whole operation." The large scale adoption of private wastewater pumping stations by water utilities - taking place in October this year as a result of 2011 regulations – is another factor which is changing the landscape of the pump market. Reynolds says that this development presents a significant opportunity for manufacturers because of the scale of the work that will be required on these new pumping assets. "The utility companies are fully cognisant of the fact they've got to take ownership of these pumping stations by the autumn, although some are more ahead of the pack than others," he says. "For some of them, I think it's going to be a five-year programme: it could be 2020 before they have done a complete survey of all the assets and brought them up to their standards. We believe that probably between ten and 15% of the assets will require pump upgrades going forward, and on top of that, they will need to put in electrical metering that meets the utility company's standards." On the energy use of pumps, Reynolds says that the industry has made great strides in recent years; one key development is the linkage of pumps to motors and inverters, so that the right products are sold together as a package. He also feels that water utilities are ahead of other pump-using industries in their thinking on energy costs. However he believes that one area where utilities could still make significant gains is by ensuring that the information used in making decisions on pumps is correct and up-to-date. He says it is common to see installations that are oversized, or have excessive spare capacity built in to guard against occasional emergencies. He called for utilities to make sure that they have the right data available to make the correct decisions on product selection. Since duty requirements change over time, conditions may have changed since the existing pump was designed and selected, so it is a constant challenge to keep asset knowledge up to date. The UK arm of Grundfos saw "phenomenal" growth in the water utilities sector in 2015 and has won places on several important frameworks, says Reynolds; the BPMA's members will be hoping that the association achieves similarly impressive results under his stewardship.

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