North East Water (NEW), is an Australian State Government-owned public water utility. For their raw water pump station (RWPS) upgrade, the intended flowmeter installation location contained several flow obstructions, including a DN300 to DN400 expansion joint directly upstream and a gate valve directly downstream. Discover the solution that saved them a costly pipe re-route, better flow accuracy and reduced their overall costs.
The Challenge:
Accurate flow measurement in water pump stations is crucial for optimal process control, monitoring and efficiency. Electromagnetic flowmeters have long become the industry standard for flow measurement in pump stations since their introduction over 35 years ago. Technology has evolved exponentially since then, as industry standards become more stringent and utilities demand ever-increasing accuracy under challenging conditions. Standard electromagnetic flowmeter installations require at least five straight run pipe diameters upstream and two pipe diameters downstream from the electrode plane to comply with the specified accuracy. Why? Electromagnetic flowmeters like stable flow profiles. For the NEW raw water pump station (RWPS) upgrade, the intended flowmeter installation location contained several flow obstructions, including a DN300 to DN400 expansion joint directly upstream and a gate valve directly downstream. In this project, engineers had a choice: comply with the standard upstream and downstream straight run length requirements by installing a costly pipe re-route, or install a flowmeter that can sufficiently handle the changing flow-profile.
The Solution:
Endress+Hauser offered the Promag W 0 x DN flowmeter – the world’s first electromagnetic flowmeter without measurement tube restriction to allow reliable flow measurement independent of the flow profile and mounting location. With its full bore design and multiple electrode measurement pairs – there is no pressure loss across the flowmeter. It can easily handle the swirling flow profile caused by the expansion joint upstream of the flowmeter, whilst guaranteeing an accuracy of at least ± 0.5% o.r. By eliminating the requirement of pipe re-routing, NEW was able to minimise installation costs. Endress+Hauser also supplied an onboard self-verification tool in the form of Heartbeat Technology. This provided fast, fully traceable and documented verification of flowmeter functionality during the commissioning stage. Verification was completed via the in-built web server in a fraction of the time required for a typical standard verification. Since Heartbeat Verification is fully Commissioning of the North East Water Raw Water pump station, installation location of the Promag W 300 0 x DN flowmeter. traceable to TUV standards, it could be used in handover documentation to NEW following commissioning. Costs savings were possible in both reduced commissioning time and avoiding callout costs for a specialist technician.
