Rotork actuators help to increase the water supply in Essex

Profibus-enabled Rotork electric valve actuators are key components in the state-of-the-art control system for a new filtration and treatment plant at a water source owned by the Essex and Suffolk Water Company.

Mowlem Engineering & Mowlem Civil Engineering are building the new plant in order to increase the supply of high quality water to users in the Grays and Thurrock area by up to 4.5 megalitres/day.

The well, pumping station and filter house were originally constructed in 1923 by the former South Essex Waterworks Company and the site is now being brought back into use after four years of redundancy. An electric pump has been installed to bring the water to the surface where it is treated and filtered to remove a high iron and manganese content before entering the supply network. The new plant comprises six pressure filters containing sand and manganese dioxide media, multiple chemical dosing stations and on-site filter backwash water processing, all under PLC automatic control using Profibus communication highways.

The majority of the Rotork actuators installed are IQT units on butterfly valves controlling the flow through the filters and the sequence of backwashing operations, which is initiated either by time elapsed, operator intervention or the analogue input signal from a differential pressure sensor. The backwash sequence utilises the digital inputs and outputs and the analogue input available on the Rotork Profibus card to minimise the number of separate Profibus interfaces required and to simplify site wiring. On receipt of the backwash signal the IQT actuators are programmed to close the filter inlet and outlet valves and open the backwash valves that enable water stored on-site to be gravity fed through the filters. At the same time digital outputs from the Rotork Profibus cards operate smaller Rotork ROM2 electric actuators on adjacent air scour valves to aerate the filter media during backwashing. At the end of the backwash period the valve operating sequence is reversed to put the filter back into normal operating mode.

The same Profibus highway controls the actuators and monitors the instrumentation on the backwash water treatment plant, which comprises a settling tank from where the separated water is drained into a wildlife lagoon in regenerated environmental land next to the site. The Profibus highway is SCADA supervised by a Siemens SL5 PLC at Essex and Suffolk's headquarters, with an Allen Bradley 50/4 PLC in the site's new control room. Under normal unmanned operation, data from the PLC will be communicated by telemetry link to the Essex and Suffolk Water central control room, at Hannifield Reservoir, where remote monitoring, interrogation and control can be performed.

Mowlem Project Leader Paul Tompkins explained the benefits provided by adopting the Profibus solution: "The site PLC required the use of a Profibus card for the variable speed pump control, so electrical contractors were asked to submit tenders for conventional hard wiring and the Profibus alternative for all parts of the site.

The adoption of Profibus facilitated substantial savings with electrical installation costs. Pre-commissioning and wiring checks were simplified and commissioning procedures were less arduous. The cost of the Rotork Profibus actuators was comparable with the 'Folomatic' current position transmitter alternative although the functionality of the Profibus version is greater.

Further installation time and material savings were experienced by using the spare l/O capability available within adjacent actuators to transmit flow, pressure, level and digital status signals back to the PLC for control and supervision of the plant.

To summarise, site cost reductions of up to 50% were achieved through reduced cabling and cable management requirements, fewer cable glands, less design drawing, reduced installation time, less terminals and termination accessories, reduced Profibus interfaces thanks to the Rotork actuators, reduced PLC l/O cards and a smaller motor control centre ICA section."