InfoWorks CS enables large CAPEX savings in Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia, October 22, 2009
Urban Water Solutions has undertaken a review of the Mernda-Doreen sewerage strategy for Yarra Valley Water that has enabled it to opt for intelligent real-time control of pumps and valves. This is to optimise the use of detention storage available within the network rather than an expensive conveyance system upgrade.
Project Background
Yarra Valley Water is one of the three retail water companies serving the city of Melbourne in Australia. The Mernda-Doreen wastewater system serves one of its major growth corridors in the northern part of the city. There are currently around 6,000 developed properties in the area, with a further 14,000 to be constructed over the next 20 years.
Waste water collected in Mernda North flows by gravity to a pump station and flow control facility. The flow control facility (FCF), pipes and manholes combined provide around 2ML of storage capacity.
Mernda South is the largest of the four subcatchments and receives over a third of the total flows. Wastewater travels by gravity to a pump station and flow control facility, which provides around 3.6ML of storage capacity.
Both of these catchments pump into gravity sewers in the Doreen system which acts as a central hub with a 3.4ML flow control facility (FCF).
The fourth catchment, Laurimar, is the most developed part of the system with all flows from this catchment draining by gravity to a central pump station that discharges into a 250mm diameter, 10km long rising main that conveys flows south to the main sewer in Eltham.
In the initial years post commissioning, the Doreen pumping station will also pump flows into this rising main, resulting in flows from all four sectors discharging via this single rising main. The creation of real-time control (RTC) rules to ensure that the pump stations do not operate simultaneously has been an essential element of the modeling work.