More water pressure for Münsterland

The project: Supplying Stadtlohn with sufficient water pressure

Stadtlohn’s utility SVS-Versorgungsbetriebe was struggling with fluctuating water pressure. At peak load times, water supply could no longer be guaranteed. Following a pressure drop of approx. 1 bar lasting over 3 hours, the decision was finally taken to redesign the clean water pumping station at the Stadtlohn-Hundewick waterworks. An additional objective was to achieve energy savings for the clean water pumps.

The customer: SVS-Versorgungsbetriebe

SVS-Versorgungsbetriebe provides the public energy and drinking water supply for the towns of Stadtlohn, Vreden and Südlohn (hence the name SVS), which are located in the western Münsterland region in the northwest of North Rhine-Westphalia. As well as providing electricity, natural gas and fibre-optic lines, SVS-Versorgungsbetriebe delivers an average of 2.9 million m³ of water per year to the local population as well as to industry, trade and agriculture via a network of pipelines stretching over 472.2 km.

The challenge: Optimum water transport in confined spaces

The supply networks Stadtlohn and Südlohn lacked sufficient drinking water reserves. When quantities of around 400 – 440 m³/h were required, pressure dropped to 32 mWC and the clean water pumps were unable to transport the required quantity, despite the head of 42 mWC being clearly below their design point which at the time was known to be 54 mWC. The redesign also had to account for the extremely limited space available in the waterworks, which ruled out most horizontally installed pumps on the market.

The solution: Proven pumps with state-of-the-art control technology

The engineering company H2U was entrusted with the task of performing a fault analysis and developing a new plan. An extensive review of the performance data and an energy efficiency analysis of the waterworks yielded the following insights: The system lacked redundancy, offered unfavourable efficiencies and could not cope during high-demand periods as the pumping station was not designed for flow rates of more than 60 m³/h – even though these occurred 15% of the time.

The engineers decided to modify the piping and flow rates, with the work being carried out by the company A+H Anlagentechnik. The following factors were of primary importance: The system needed to become more flexible and energy efficient while offering a higher level of redundancy. In the Multitec V, KSB was able to offer a very efficient pump with frequency inverter (FI) which can also be operated via the latest high-tech interfaces. In addition, the pump can be installed vertically and thus fit perfectly into the confined space available. From a cost-benefit perspective, this was the best solution on the market. 

The entire waterworks now employs KSB SuPremE^® motors controlled by frequency inverters. The water flow rates of the pumps controlled via frequency inverters can be read on the PumpDrive display. The frequency inverters can be operated very easily by means of a multi-line display and can also be set via Bluetooth using a smartphone. Using KSB SuPremE^® motors also delivered the desired energy savings. Here, the frequency inverters are additionally used to calculate the pumped flow rates, removing the need to purchase electromagnetic flow meters.

The cooperation of all parties involved went so well that KSB has already converted another waterworks in Vreden to using KSB SuPremE^® motors, PumpDrive 2 and KSB Guard.

Figures I Data I Facts

System: Waterworks
End user: SVS-Versorgungsbetriebe

Project data:

• 2x Multitec V
• 3x Etanorm 
• 5x PumpDrive 
• 5x PumpMeter 
• 5x KSB Guard