2009-02-03 - Videographic recording technology from ABB is being used to improve performance at two water treatment works in South Wales, UK.
Both sites are managed by United Utilities on behalf of Dwr Cymru, and the new recorders have been performing a variety of functions at the two locations.
First, an SM3000 videographic recorder has transformed the operation of the Carno treatment works near Ebbw Vale. For the first time, operators can see what’s happening throughout the plant instantly from the control room.
The plant previously relied on paper chart recorders and the information available to the control room was very limited, according to instrumentation and control technician Steve Curnow. “We’d get an alarm and the operators would have to go out and try to find the cause. But by the time they got there the alarm had often gone off, so it was difficult to know what was happening” he says.
A blockage could easily come and go in the time it took to locate it, for example, or a fluctuation in temperature or pH may have returned to normal. This lack of reliable information made it more difficult to maintain the optimum operating conditions throughout the plant at all times.
“The SM3000 has given us 30 channels, so practically every instrument on site is now hooked up to the control room,” says Mr. Curnow. “It’s been very helpful because it means we can see what’s happening straight away. It helps with day-to-day operations and also speeds things up when we’re trying to set up new equipment.”
The Carno treatment works has also installed an SM2000 recorder (to replace an obsolete ABB Kent system) for the triple-validation control of pH. The recorder takes signals from three separate pH measuring systems and calculates the average reading. This average is then used to control the plant’s dosing pumps. “ABB helped set up the recorder to carry out the whole thing automatically,” says Mr. Curnow.
Meanwhile, two further SM2000 recorders from ABB have replaced four older recorders at the Cwm Tillery works near Abertillery, UK. The screens on the old recorders had largely burnt out, making it increasingly difficult to read them.
“The new recorders can perform on-board flow integration calculations for instance, which means that the operator doesn’t have to go down a steep set of steps to take off readings of total flow from a mechanical counter. So they’ve actually improved health and safety,” says Mr. Curnow.
The SM2000 recorders at Cwm Tillery monitor six channels each, making it possible for each recorder to replace two of the older units, which could only monitor four channels each.
“Since the introduction of the Pollution Prevention and Control regulations, the UK's Environment Agency is increasingly stressing the requirement for water companies to monitor their own environmental impact. At the same time, commercial pressures are driving water companies to run their operations as efficiently as possible” says Paul McLauglin of ABB. “The secure data storage capacity and flexible functionality of videographic recorders makes them ideal tools for optimising the management of almost every aspect of water treatment operations.”