Global engineering consultancy firm GHD has announced a new technological innovation that will allow continuous water pump monitoring in real time.

 

GHD’s Pump Efficiency Meter System has been developed by the company’s Cazenovia operations with support from GHD’s Innovation Program. The system is designed to integrate with existing pump control systems to optimise the use of a water facility’s pumps, allowing real time updates to be delivered to technicians when a pump’s performance has deteriorated and requires maintenance.

 

"Most pump systems operate in a lead/lag configuration where a lag pump only runs when the lead pump fails or cannot keep up with demand. The problem with existing control systems is that they don’t know why the lead pump can’t keep up - is the pumping demand really that high, or has the capacity of the lead pump degraded?" GHD’s Project Manager Energy Services Tom Devine said.

 

"The causes of pump inefficiency are not typically visible to the naked eye and existing pump control systems do not generate alarms or warnings until there is an actual pump failure. Our system continuously monitors pump performance and generates an alarm before there is a failure – allowing operators to be proactive in their maintenance."