Video shows water plant saving Euro 500,000 a year with ABB variable-speed drives

A new ABB video produced with Energy Live News shows how a water treatment works in Ireland is saving over Euro 500,000 a year on energy costs using ABB variable-speed drives.

In the video Lar Spain, senior engineer for Leixlip Water Treatment Works, explains that the plant was prompted to look at its energy use to control costs.

Spain tells how ABB variable-speed drives were used to make the pumps in the plant much more efficient, producing a cut in energy use of around 200,000 kWhrs a year. This gives a saving of around Euro 500,000 a year on pumping energy costs with a payback time of around 15 months.

Four 710 kW ABB cabinet built drives were installed in place of the existing soft starts and now work in conjunction with the two drives previously installed. Each new drive was installed without any disruption to the plant, maintaining full operation at all times.

The Leixlip Water Treatment Works in Co. Kildare is the second largest water treatment facility in Ireland. With a capacity of 175,000 m³ a day, it supplies over 30 percent of the drinking water requirements of the Greater Dublin Region.

The video, together with others showing how ABB variable-speed drives are saving costs in other industrial applications is available at www.abb.co.uk/energy