As part of an improved maintenance strategy, Anglian Water has partnered with the Netherlands-based technology company Samotics to optimise performance and energy efficiency of AC motors and rotating equipment.
Through AI-powered algorithms and a technique called electrical signature analysis (ESA), Samotics offered a failure detection technology coupled with performance and energy insights to help eliminate unplanned downtime, reduce risk, lower costs and save energy.
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS
Prior to deployment, Anglian Water sat down with the Samotics team for an assessment to determine where the predictive technology would provide the most value in the specific conditions of its network sites.
It was determined the AI-based asset health monitoring system SAM4 from Samotics could help Anglian Water tackle challenges in monitoring its fleet of submerged equipment. Because SAM4 uses a suite of techniques to analyse a motor’s electrical signature, its sensors are installed inside the motor control cabinet (MCC) by design.
That allows the water utility to capture reliable and actionable asset health and performance data at a distance, without being anywhere near the asset. These remote capabilities take away the need to regularly inspect submerged equipment. As a result, a range of assets, including borehole pumps, inlet screws and aeration rotors, spread across more than 25 sites are now under 24/7 monitoring of the AI-powered algorithms that can detect and classify developing faults at an early stage.
EARLY DETECTION
Anglian Water supplies more than one billion litres of water every day to more than two million households and 110,000 businesses. To provide clean water, the company relies on biological water treatment processes that remove soluble organic material and ammonia.
To facilitate these biological processes, an ample amount of oxygen is required so that microbes can remove pollutants. That’s where aeration systems come in and play a significant role.
Aeration rotors are critical components within these aeration systems; their blades trigger the mixing of the water and the turbulences bring the air to the lower layers of the water stream. Aeration rotors are essential assets within continuous wastewater recycling processes.
If downtime occurred in any aeration rotor, it would reduce site capacity. This could result in a loss of service to customers and major environmental risks through pollution incidents.
Because of the aforementioned points, receiving early warnings about developing failures has a significant impact on Anglian Water’s operations, which are illustrated by the two following SAM4 case studies.
ROTOR MONITORING
The first example is an early warning of mechanical unbalance in an aeration rotor enabled maintenance to be planned at an optimal time.
In July 2021, SAM4’s AI-driven algorithms started flagging the rotor at one of the Anglian Water sites for signs of mechanical unbalance and/or looseness. The system notified Anglian Water of the developing failure, but since SAM4 was able to catch it at an early stage, no immediate action was required. Two weeks later, a vibration measurement confirmed the alert sent out by SAM4.
For the next three months, SAM4 continued to monitor the rotor’s condition, which exhibited sporadic energy increases. In December, a good opportunity came up to carry out maintenance, during which the Anglian Water team replaced the rotor’s motor, coupling and gearbox.
When Anglian Water inspected the assembly that was taken out, they found a clear unbalance in the rotor, which again confirmed SAM4’s initial notification. Anglian water installed the replacement and the rotor went back into operations.
Based on SAM4’s real-time asset health data, the Anglian Water team could take timely action, preventing a catastrophic failure, which could have led to extensive downtime, high maintenance costs and a potential pollution event.
RISK PREVENTION
Another example is a continuous real-time insight into the health of the aeration rotor enabled the team to take steps to mitigate risks.
In October 2021, SAM4 sent out a high-priority alert for the rotor at one of the sites, indicating a sudden increase of energy around the rotational frequency and pointing to signs of mechanical unbalance and/or looseness. At the time, SAM4 had only been installed on the rotor for two weeks.
Due to the severity of the developing issue, the system immediately urged the Anglian Water team to inspect the asset at the earliest opportunity and advised to prepare component replacements. Several days later, a vibration measurement confirmed that there was a looseness in the motor and gearbox assembly.
Relying on SAM4’s data and recommendations, the Anglian Water team planned immediate remedial works to ensure the asset kept running. After the intervention measures, the asset’s condition slightly improved, which was visible in SAM4 data. However, it didn’t fix the underlying failure. So, for the next 1.5 months, SAM4 continued to monitor the rotor’s condition, which showed the energy intensity kept gradually rising.
On 10 December, SAM4 detected another sharp increase, indicating the failure progressed to the next stage. The system notified Anglian Water and put the asset on red alert. Over the next few days, the values remained high, which prompted the system to send a follow-up alert, this time pointing to energy rise around bearing-related frequencies. On 14 December, the Anglian Water team received a notification that the rotor would fail shortly.
However, because the rotor needed to keep operating to ensure that the water recycling site remained at full capacity, it wasn’t possible to immediately take out the asset for maintenance. This unfortunately resulted in the asset breaking down on 15 December, before an opportunity came up to do repairs.
While the rotor was not operational, SAM4 closely monitored other assets on site to give Anglian Water site teams confidence in the mitigation and temporary processes put in place.
On 11 March, the Anglian Water team found an opportune moment when they could install a new rotor assembly. It was immediately visible in the SAM4 data.
AVOIDING HIGH COSTS
By accurately signalling developing aeration rotor failures, Samotics helped Anglian Water take timely action to prevent catastrophic failures and prepare actions to mitigate risks. In turn, this helped the water utility to raise its water recycling site’s efficiency and reliability, so it could continue to recycle water effectively and return it safely to the environment.
Additionally, the Anglian Water team was able to save extra costs because the team knew months in advance of an impending failure, maintenance could be planned at the most optimal time, preventing unplanned maintenance-related costs.
A full replacement of the rotor would have been much more expensive than just replacing a specific failing component. If the rotor failed and there were no spare parts available, the team would have needed to rent emergency equipment, so raising costs.
From Samotics insights, the Anglian Water team successfully minimised the risk of potential pollution incidents, safeguarding the quality and availability of water supplies for customers, while preventing associated financial impacts.
By implementing predictive technology from Samotics, Anglian Water gains real-time insights that help the company to successfully implement a proactive maintenance strategy and work in a more data-driven way.
As a result, Anglian Water eliminates unplanned downtime, reduces risk, lowers costs and saves energy, ensuring it can continue meeting the region’s current and future water needs while minimising its impact on the environment.