Peme Gourdin improves water pump energy efficiency by 10 percent
In 2014, a global water report commissioned by the United Nations projected that energy would represent a quarter of the cost of producing safe drinking water across the globe. Several years earlier, the Cercle Français de L’Eau estimated that the potabilization of drinking water was the second largest consumer of energy for public water and sanitation facilities, with an average 0.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy consumption per cubic meter of drinking water produced. Faced with such alarming figures, the world’s water industry began to mobilize.
It was during this mobilization that, in 2018, leaders of a French water supply company launched an ambitious new project. Distribution of drinking water requires the use of energy-intensive pumps and motors. Wear and tear or poor operation of this equipment can result in significant energy losses. Extensive renovation was to begin on pump stations across a major French supply network.
In this project, ABB was joined by French design and manufacturing company Peme Gourdin, which produces centrifugal pumps for use in water supply networks. The results were impressive.
By producing energy efficient water pumps that used less power and had a longer service life, ABB and Peme Gourdin delivered an estimated 10 percent improvement in the overall electrical performance of water treatment plants.
A further step was to better regulate the pressure in each station and to avoid unnecessary energy consumption, leading to improved water pump efficiency. Pumping stations were reconfigured to account for recent changes in the network, such as the number of dependent households. Where needed, new high-efficiency motors were deployed to accommodate a change in demand. Then came the recalibration exercise, for more than a hundred machines.
Jean-Marc Guibert, President of Peme Gourdin, explains: “In recent years, the theme of energy efficiency has naturally become strategic for our business. It is not only a question of meeting the demands of our customers, but also of assuming our own corporate responsibility in the face of the current climate and energy challenges. We now offer machines that consume less energy and have a longer service life.”
“The results show that the quest for energy efficiency does not necessarily involve replacing all old equipment, but also maintaining and renovating it,” concludes Laure Kleiss, Business Motion Director at ABB France. “This is not a small detail when you consider that the major players in the water sector are now seeking to improve the carbon footprint of their installations, in particular by using longer-lasting machines.”
