A new pumping station for Calgary

The demand for water increases with the number of inhabitants

Calgary is one of the fastest growing cities in Canada. It’s therefore no surprise that the city’s demand for drinking water is growing. To secure the supply of water, the city decided to build a new pumping station. KSB Canada supplied an optimum hydraulic system and perfectly configured pumps – ensuring the success of the project.

Established in 1875, the metropolis of Calgary is the main urban centre for the southern half of the province of Alberta. It is located in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers. The city owes its rapid growth to its status as the centre of the Canadian oil industry. It is also internationally known for its annual rodeo in July and a large outdoor event called the Calgary Stampede. With a growing population of over 1.3 million people and the continuous development of industry and commerce, the ever-increasing demand of residents for drinking water must be met.

Smooth transition from the old to the new facility

The City of Calgary owns and operates two water treatment plants: the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant and the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant. These state-of-the-art treatment plants draw their water from the Bow River and Elbow River. The two plants together produce a total of 950,000 cubic metres of drinking water per day. The treated water is stored at the treatment plants before being pumped into the mains water network for distribution across the city. The Bearspaw plant in the city’s Northwest district pumps water into three separate underground feeder mains, the largest of which is the South Feeder, Calgary’s largest and most important water supply main. The Shaganappi Pump Station takes water directly from the South Feeder and then splits the water flow, ensuring the necessary hydraulic pressure and pumping the water to the north and south of Calgary.

The existing Shaganappi Pump Station is over 40 years old and is showing various signs of ageing. Many of its mechanical and electrical components are now obsolete, making them difficult to operate and maintain. Given the crucial function of this pumping station and the extensive upgrades that would have been necessary to ensure its efficiency and reliability, the decision was taken to replace the existing pumping station with a new one.

The new Shaganappi Pump Station was completed in March 2022 and is located around 200 metres west of the old facility. This allows the city to continue to use most of the existing underground infrastructure, including the original 1950 mm diameter piping connection to the South Feeder. The location was also chosen to keep construction costs low and to minimise disruption to the water supply system and surrounding communities, enabling a smooth transition from the old to the new facility.

KSB Canada wins challenging tender

In late 2017, the city issued a call for tenders to find a suitable provider to supply pumps and drives for the existing and new water pumping stations. KSB Canada successfully participated in the rigorous bidding process and was awarded the contract in May 2018. The contract comprised the supply of pumps and drives for the new Shaganappi Pump Station project as well as other projects such as retrofitting the Palliser Drive Pump Station.

“The older Palliser Drive project allowed us to demonstrate the capabilities and advantages of our Omega pumps to the City of Calgary,” reports Pasha Barazandeh, Regional Sales Manager for KSB Pumps Inc. in Canada. “For this project, we supplied two electrically driven pumps and one pump driven by a natural gas engine to meet a pumping demand of up to 60,000 cubic metres per day. The city was very satisfied with our products and twelve months on everything is still running well.”

Pumps proven in water applications around the globe

The City of Calgary’s specifications required between-bearings, axially split centrifugal pumps. Other specific requirements included suction and discharge nozzles with integrally cast flanges to ANSI/ASME B16.1. The impeller diameter was not permitted to be reduced to less than 98 percent of an untrimmed impeller. The casing wear rings on both impeller suction sides also had had to be replaceable. In addition, a number of specific material requirements had to be met in order to comply with national and international standards for handling drinking water.

Having proven themselves in many water applications around the globe, the RDLO and Omega pumps were judged by the customer to be highly suitable for their specific requirements. KSB’s axially split RDLO and Omega single volute casing pumps feature a double-entry radial impeller and are ideally suited to the requirements of water pumping stations. They transport fluids with a minimum of flow resistance, thus reducing the energy and life cycle costs of the systems in which they are used. CFD-optimised hydraulic systems deliver both the best operating point and operating efficiency levels of over 86 percent.

Rapid response, technical expertise and professional management ensure success

The double-entry impeller balances the axial forces so that the load on the maintenance-free bearings is minimal. The combination of solid bearing brackets, a short and rigid shaft and preloaded bearings guarantees low vibration levels and a long service life for the bearings, seals and coupling. The axially split volute casing pumps simplify maintenance work as all the parts are easily accessible for thorough inspection. The drive can be mounted on both the left and right of the pump without requiring additional parts or modifications to the casing.

From the tendering process right through to the construction of the new pumping station, KSB Canada worked closely with the City of Calgary, the engineering consultant (Associated Engineering) and the building contractor (Graham Infrastructure LLP). KSB Canada played an important role in the project by providing a fast response, technical support and project management. “We were confronted with a very challenging tender from the City of Calgary,” Barazandeh explains. “We selected the most suitable and proven pump types and tailored them to the city’s specifications. Providing an optimum hydraulic system to meet or even exceed these requirements, as well as configuring the pumps for the specific operating conditions were key factors in the success of the project.”