What will happen if your pump station fails?
Pump stations are vital to water systems and require an extreme level of care. A pump station failure could result in an expensive outage, contaminate the surrounding environment, and pose health risks to the community.
Many pumping systems rely on redundancy to help in the event of a failure but it is also important to work on improving the functionality of the pumping system through preventive maintenance. Preventative maintenance is crucial because over time components wear, parts may be added or removed, and these changes can completely alter the system’s operation.
Proper preventative maintenance will deliver an accurate understanding of how a pumping system is performing. Pump stations will not always show signs of deterioration before complete failure and regular preventive maintenance can provide maintenance records that will help predict or diagnose pump failure or loss of performance. This can help with planning further maintenance and controlling the budget.
We have listed the top preventive maintenance techniques that we recommend to ensure that pump stations will operate at optimum performance as designed:
- Visual Inspections: Visual inspections can help identify wear and tear, corrosion and deterioration of electrical equipment such as wires, bus bars, equipment terminations, etc. This should be done by a Qualified Licensed Electrician that will recognize safety issues that aren’t in accordance with NEC and NFPA 70E.
- Infrared Scanning: Infrared scanning uses an infrared camera to identify abnormal thermal issues that are the result of overloaded equipment or high-resistance connections.
- Ultrasonic Testing: Ultrasonic testing uses an ultrasonic probe to identify high-frequency sound waves. This allows you to diagnosis arcing and chattering in circuit breakers, switches, contacts and relays. Also gives ability to identify any abnormalities in your motor’s bearings and windings.
- Voltage Current Analysis: A voltage-current analysis can verify loads to manufacturing specs as well as verify proper incoming power from the utility and/or generator.
