Over the past 12 months, we have been working in collaboration with Severn Trent Water (STW) and NIVUS to develop an energy efficient flow solution for waste water pumping stations.
Sentridge has been developing innovative solutions to help STW make improvements and save energy for many years. By combining our hands-on experience and water industry knowledge with NIVUS’ accurate actual real-time flow measurement technology and ABB drive technology, we are proud to introduce the NivuFlow Energy Saver to the world of water.
Following a number of very successful trials, STW is planning to adopt the NivuFlow Energy Saver on a large scale and rollout to critical sites across the region.
STW engineers are at the front-line of the business and instrumental in keeping water supplies flowing smoothly. Their schedules are busy, but we wanted to make sure they were kept informed on this latest innovation.
We held our first training sessions, which provided a great opportunity for the engineers to answer questions, gain an understanding to the background of the project and learn how the technology works.
The day was led by Lee Finney (STW), Mike Smith (NIVUS) and Philip Tomkinson and Samantha Cahalin from Sentridge.

Background to Project
Lee explained to the group how and why this project was started, “We have a long history of working with Sentridge. Their inverter drive solutions on our fresh and waste water pump applications have been saving us energy and money for many years.”
Lee continues, “When Sentridge told us about their collaboration with flow measuring experts NIVUS we were interested to know more. The NIVUS flow metre uses a unique cross-correlation technique to record accurate actual real-time flow measurements through a pipe. We knew that this level of accuracy had potential to take our energy saving work to a new level.”
“The amount of data we now have access to helps us validate our trials and identify the sweet spot of efficiency, so we can set the drive parameters accordingly.”
The main driver for the project was to reduce energy with a payback period of no greater than 5 years, but there are other benefits of combining flow and drive technology too:

• Pollution mitigation at red triangle sites
• Protecting the water course and reducing the number of call outs
• Reduced maintenance interventions

In addition, the NivuFlow Energy Saver operates a RAG system which gives operators a quick snapshot view on the status of the pump.

The Project Process:

• Identify high consuming sites
• Carry out a site visit and set up validation trials
• Monitor data using existing telemetry infrastructure

If energy saving potential is identified, the trial is converted to a fixed installation and a continuous monitoring programme initiated via telemetry and energy team reporting.
Keeping site engineers informed is paramount to the success of this project and once a NivuFlow Energy Saver is installed, a handover folder is left in the panel. This folder contains manuals, drawings and a “what good looks like” list of parameters, providing you with all the information you need to keep things running as efficiently as possible.
The training days were a great success and the feedback from the engineers will help develop and improve the technology to work even smarter.

If you would like to know more call us on 024 7655 3303 or 01782 444 655