Five pumping stations were to be rehabilitated and established in distant and remote locations. The purpose of these stations was to pump water to new stations and new reservoirs. The remote stations were to be connected to the central station and monitored via a SCADA system.
Motor starters type and power rating should match the required load and save power as efficient as possible. One of these stations should have SCADA installed to monitor and control the rest remotely.
Five pumping stations in 5 different distant locations were constructed. Each pump station had an MCC to control the pumps. Based on the loads, the appropriate motor starters to select were soft-starters with Motor Protection Device. This provided complete protection against over/under current, over/under voltage, phase imbalance, earth fault, jam, and long start.
The MCCs had main circuit breaker varying from 400-2500A depending on total load. To optimize power consumption, Power Factor Correction Panels (PFCPs) were deployed in parallel to each main circuit breaker. Ranging from 100-500kVAR, the PFCPs reduced the reactive power significantly, and consequently, lowering the electric bill.
Modular PLC controllers were installed and programmed to process I/Os varying from 100-380 I/O per panel. In addition to its native I/Os, the PLC communicated with the motor protection device via ModBus® protocol to get readings and faults and report them as alarms to the SCADA system while automatically taking an action in case of critical faults.
One of the pump stations, located in Lajjoun, was to host the centralized SCADA system and provide the ability to control and monitor the other four stations remotely. This needed proper communications channel between all the stations and hence a special design was implemented.
In order to link five remote stations, a reliable communications medium is required. Fiber optics were out of the question because the nature of infrastructure made it very difficult to dig and install new conduits, hence the wireless solution was adopted. Wireless radio bridges could not also be used because the distance between the stations was beyond their reach so cellular communication was the most practical solution. Therefore, GPRS modems were installed at each location, sending data from the local PLC to the Lajjoun station’s PLC which is hosting the SCADA system. Bidirectional communications allowed for monitoring and control over the remote stations.
Each MCC panel was equipped with a UPS of 3kVA to ensure the communications are not to be interrupted for any reason.
TAl-Karak city upgraded their existing water network and accounted for the increase in demand in the coming years. The design was flexible allowing for future addition of more stations to the system via GPRS/3G/4G or whatever new technologies might arise in the future. The solution is robust and working reliably for years.
Name: Water Loss Reduction Program
Date: August 2011
Location: Karak / Jordan
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