 Project Appreciation and ObjectivesThere are currently over 20,000 sewage pumping stations in the UK within the sewer network and the proposed transfer of private sewers in England and Wales is expected to add a further 10,000. There were approximately 30,000 sewer network pumping station failure incidents in England and Wales in 2008/9, which led to approximately 250 internal and 1350 external flooding events, as well as a number of serious pollution incidents. The maintenance of pumping stations is a mixture of planned and reactive activities. Unplanned, reactive, maintenance is often expensive, with associated high travel costs, and whilst it can mitigate impacts, it will not reduce the numbers of failures. Planned maintenance schedules, including cleaning and mechanical and electrical activities, have been largely developed on the basis of trial and error, with past incidents, leading to more frequent maintenance regimes. However, the relationship between maintenance frequencies and failures is still not fully understood. Investigations to optimise maintenance and energy costs using traditional methods can be expensive in relation to the savings made, particularly at small pumping stations. However, remote monitoring technologies offer new possibilities to optimise maintenance programmes, with the added benefit of improving energy efficiency. This project will develop a template approach to reduce pumping station failures through planned maintenance and improved monitoring to predict failure before it occurs. Benefits to Clients - Cost savings through reduced unplanned maintenance, greater use of predictive maintenance and improved energy efficiency.
- Improved serviceability of sewage pumping stations.
- Improved confidence from regulator leading to reduced risk of prosecution in the event of a failure.,/li>
Work Programme - In consultation with participants, identify the implementation route for the output and agree the general specification
- Review failure data to identify the common types of failure and its impact.
- Review current maintenance regimes and costs.
- Investigate monitoring opportunities using existing or additional equipment to predict failures.
- Investigate the impact of maintenance regimes on energy consumption.
- Develop maintenance templates that take account of the risks of failure, local conditions; including the nature of the effluent and the extent of monitoring employed.
- Estimate the costs and benefits of implementing the proposed templates.
- Complete, demonstrate and deliver the output to contributors together with updated implementation plan.
Project Output - Interim report on existing maintenance regimes, failure rates, failure consequences and costs.
- Maintenance templates and the estimated costs and benefits of implementation.
- Implementation plan.
- Dissemination seminar
Related WRc Work - Pumps - maintenance and replacement to suit, CP348, 2009-2010
- Minimum serviceability level for transferred Pumping Stations, UKWIR. 2010- ongoing.
- Water Industry Specifications for Small Sewage Pumping Stations. CP370. 2009-2010
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