Continuous vibration monitoring of pump stations at a major wastewater treatment plant pays off for the City of Tampa.

The Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (HFCAWTP) is a state-of-the-art facility that treats all wastewater discharged from the City of Tampa, fl, system from approximately 100,000 accounts. The plant has a license capacity of 96 million gallons per day (MGD), with an average daily flow of 60 MGD. The final product, or effluent water, is discharged to Hillsborough Bay or used as reclaimed water for cooling and irrigation. This high-quality water meets all state and federal requirements.

The plant has developed and is currently executing an optimization program that includes automation of processes and procedures when possible, and reducing scheduled vs. unscheduled downtime and maintenance, transitioning from a reactive to proactive organization ready to address issues and problems. Because the Howard F. Curren facility is the City of Tampa’s (COT) only wastewater treatment facility, it is imperative to minimize flow interruptions, unscheduled downtime and overflows.

The use of reliable pumps to transport wastewater from various locations in the city is critical for maximizing flows and maintaining biological efficiencies by producing a constant flow. When the pumps fail, backup pumps are used to keep the flow going. Failures often can be very damaging to the pumps and auxiliary equipment. Installing a protection system that monitors the vibration levels and can be integrated to a shutdown circuit can minimize flow interruptions and the amount of costly damage to that equipment. The price of a new pump motor can be as high as $450,000; the cost to repair an existing unit can approach $175,000 after a catastrophic failure. In an effort to help prevent these types of failures, the HFCAWTP and Connection Technology Center, Inc.,

The application
There are eight major pump stations that collect the wastewater and deliver it to the treatment plant. Each major pump station has many smaller stations that will feed it—either through pump systems or gravity feed. There are approximately 224 pump stations within this system.

Three types of pumps setups are typical of these stations: Direct coupled, submersible and vertical shaft. The direct coupled stations will have the motor and the pump on the same floor, with the motor in an...(Read whole article)