The VLT Newsletter

inMotion

No 11, Sept. 2005

Danfoss VLT 8000 Aqua Drive for Deep Well Pumps

When the engineers of Laguna Water District were designing the control system of new pumping stations, they decided to use VLT drives.
considerably on energy bill. The rst VSD installation for Laguna Water is the Jubileeville Pump Station located in the town of Bay, Laguna. The pump is a 55kW, vertical turbine driven deep well pump. It is installed with a VLT 8072, IP54 drive, directly mounted on the wall. This installation conrmed the potential energy savings and signaled the acceptance of the VLT 8000 at Laguna Water. After this rst initial installation and after the savings in energy cost was conrmed, three more Danfoss VLT 8000 were installed: at the Lamot II Pump Station, Maahas Pump Station and most recently, at the VEGA Pump Station. The VEGA Pump station is a Grundfos TM submersible deep well pump. It is in this particular pump station that the compatibility of Danfoss VLT 8000 with submersible pumps was tested. Two concerns were addressed, the relatively long motor cables because of the deep pump setting and the preconception that drives should not be used with submersible pumps. When all four pump stations were benchmarked for energy savings, the result was remarkable. Energy consumption was reduced to more than 50%. All pump stations except for Lamot II are run from generator sets. With the continuous rise of diesel fuel costs, the Danfoss VLT 8000 has proven to be a very important part of the pump stations of Laguna Water. Energy Consumption Benchmark Electricity and fuel consumption was recoreded for 30 days with he pumps running at full speed. This benchmark was then compared to the consumption for 30 days with the pumps running at variable speed. The results clearly show that Laguna Water was able to cut its diesel fuel cost by an average of 51% for the generator driven pump stations. Even the submersible pump at the VEGA Pump Station, initially, not considered for VSD operation is recording 50% savings on fuel. The Lamot II Pump Station, which is run from the electric utility has recorded impressive savings of 56.36%.

This decision did not come easily, because variable speed drives on deep well pumps are relatively new technology in the local water industry. Besides, the drives are also costly, compared to traditional control systems. Customer Statements According to Mr. Emil Puerto, Planning Manager for Laguna Water District, the project still went through, because they knew that variable speed drives when used to control the speed of pumps to meet the actual water demand, will enable Laguna Water District to save

Three-month average diesel fuel consumption of three pump stations

Three-month average electricity consumption of Lamot II Pump Station

Danfoss VLT 8000 Aqua Drive for Deep Well Pumps

www.Danfoss.com/Drives

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The VLT Newsletter

inMotion

How electronic control save energy In many ow applications a mechanical throttling device is used to limit the ow. Although this is an eective means of control it wastes mechanical and electrical energy because of high losses. As seen in the gure below, the use of electronic motor control to control ow to match the demand will result in the reduction of energy consumption.

Comparison of Energy consumption

For centrifugal pumps, power consumed is directly proportional to the cube of the speed:

Power consumption

%P = (%rpm)3
Therefore a small reduction in pump speed
Electronic control

results in a large reduction in energy consumption Even just a 20% reduction in pump speed results in almost 50% reduction in energy consumption.

Pump speed (rpm)

Danfoss VLT 8000 Aqua Drive for Deep Well Pumps

www.Danfoss.com/Drives

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