ABB has released a new playbook outlining how water and wastewater professionals can address some of the most pressing operational challenges – from power quality issues and ageing infrastructure, to water hammer and cavitation. The guide, entitled “The 7 Enemies That Interrupt Your Water & Wastewater Operations”, focuses on seven common causes of disruption, and explores how ABB drives can help to improve resilience, efficiency, and reliability.
The launch comes at a challenging time for the UK water sector. Utilities are under pressure to improve performance and resilience, while navigating regulatory requirements, low public confidence, rising energy costs, ageing infrastructure, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. At the same time, they must also maintain reliable service that meets capacity needs, reduce the environmental impact of operations, and meet ambitious efficiency and sustainability targets.
These operational issues, if left unchecked, can quickly mount up and have a severe negative impact on performance, maintenance costs, efficiency and reliability. Poor power quality can disrupt processes, while water hammer and cavitation can cause leaks, and significantly shorten the life of equipment and infrastructure.
Managing ageing assets while modernising control systems can be difficult within constrained budgets. Even in applications where drive technology is already used, incorrect configuration can mean that the potential efficiency and performance benefits are not fully realised. The playbook focuses on practical, targeted interventions that can help to address these challenges, while improving energy efficiency, prolonging equipment life, and reducing downtime.
Water and wastewater plants need to run without interruption and in the most efficient and environmentally conscious way. Regulatory compliance is the primary mission, and treatment plants cannot jeopardize water quality standards or service levels. However, this means that energy efficiency is often overlooked in favour of resilience, particularly when budgets are constrained. The longer it takes to address process inefficiencies, the more operational budget is wasted.
Pumping systems account for a substantial proportion of energy usage across a wide range of water and wastewater processes. Drives are used to control the speed and torque of pump motors to match motor speed with actual demand, often saving large amounts of energy.
As well as saving energy, the playbook explores some of the water-specific features and functions in ABB drives that can help to improve resilience and reliability, reduce mechanical stress, optimise performance, and extend asset life.
Knowing your enemy is the first step to defeating it. The playbook can be found online by searching for “ABB Seven Enemies”.
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