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The Spitzmühle waterworks building from outside
7 min read

Turning on the taps for a booming region

Water is an essential element of our everyday lives. Ensuring an uninterrupted supply of clean drinking water in compliance with increasingly demanding legal requirements is a challenge for water supply utilities, especially in hot summers with little rain. This situation is exacerbated by increasing demand for water in agriculture. Only with experienced project partners at their side can water companies make precious water continuously available in the required quantity and quality.

Water is an essential element of our everyday lives. Ensuring an uninterrupted supply of clean drinking water in compliance with increasingly demanding legal requirements is a challenge for water supply utilities, especially in hot summers with little rain. This situation is exacerbated by increasing demand for water in agriculture. Only with experienced project partners at their side can water companies make precious water continuously available in the required quantity and quality.

The project:

Construction of the Spitzmühle waterworks

The area of Brandenburg administered by the Strausberg-Erkner water board borders on Berlin to the east. In contrast to many other areas of the new German federal states, it is considered a growth region.

The newly constructed Spitzmühle waterworks replaced the existing Bötzsee waterworks in 2014, and has since supplied water to the region together with three other waterworks in the area administered by the Strausberg-Erkner water board (Wasserverband Strausberg-Erkner, WSE).

Spitzmühle is indispensable as it covers the base load for the area administered by the WSE. With local land usage being dominated by owner-occupied homes, enormous leaps in consumption are common – especially in the summer months. The quantities handled by the waterworks therefore fluctuate between 100 m³ and 1470 m³ per hour. KSB pumps play an important role in ensuring that the entire system operates reliably.
The machine hall of the Spitzmühle waterworks with filter vessels and pipes

The enormous filter vessels in the machine hall of the waterworks © WSE

The client:

Wasserverband Strausberg-Erkner (Strausberg-Erkner water board)

Wasserverband Strausberg-Erkner (WSE) supplies almost 170,000 inhabitants with fresh drinking water via a network of pipelines, shut-off valves and hydrants extended over more than 1,300 km. Five pressure booster stations ensure that drinking water is supplied at sufficient pressure, even in higher areas. The area administered by the board covers around 552 km² including 3 towns and 13 municipalities in the rural districts of Barnim, Märkisch-Oderland and Oder-Spree.

The challenge:

Responsibility for a trouble-free drinking water supply

While the failure of urban or municipal waste water systems would have little noticeable impact on inhabitants within a limited period of time, drinking water supply must always function 100% – round the clock, 365 days a year and at every conceivable temperature. 

In addition to providing a continuous base supply of fresh water to residents, industry and agriculture, water suppliers must also react to peak demand at short notice without this leading to reduced water quality or a loss of water pressure for consumers. Sudden increases in water consumption occur at certain times of the day and can be triggered by unforeseen events. The supply technology utilised must be designed to handle such peak loads and be able to operate reliably during long periods of drought in the hot summer months.
Etanorm pumps, pipes and valves in the machine hall of the Spitzmühle waterworks

Various Etanorm pump models for drinking water supply and filter flushing systems © WSE

The solution:

Standardised water pumps that have proven themselves many times over

Construction of the Spitzmühle waterworks involved many factors, but ensuring reliable operation of the pumps had top priority. The well pumps transport large quantities of water from the Spitzmühle East catchment groundwater wells. In the first stage of the treatment process, the pumped groundwater is enriched with oxygen. In the waterworks’ machine hall, the water is cleaned of iron and manganese, among other substances, in enormous filter vessels. After the final stage – deacidification – the drinking water is temporarily stored in the pure water chambers. Until the water is finally fed into the  pure water chambers. Until the water is finally fed into the pipes to the consumer in drinking water quality, it has to be pumped through the various processing stages by a total of 21 KSB pumps.

In cooperation with the lead engineering office LOPP from Weimar, the Strausberg-Erkner water board considered various pump suppliers during the planning process. In the end, the results of a cost-benefit analysis tipped the scales in favour of pumps from KSB. A decisive aspect was WSE’s wish to order everything from one supplier. Even though the KSB pumps examined in comparable projects had proved to be extremely reliable and fail-safe, a technical defect can never be  100% ruled out. In this case, a specialist service must be available staffed by experts who understand the relevant pump technology in detail and can provide immediate service when required.

Having worked together for 30 years, KSB and Würdig-Pumpentechnik from Berlin have established a relationship characterised by competence and reliability. The staff at Würdig-Pumpentechnik are trained in the functionality and servicing of KSB pumps and the provider keeps all important spare parts in stock. It goes without saying that Würdig is also responsible for regular servicing.

UPA submersible borehole pumps from KSB are used to pump water from groundwater wells, while Etanorm pumps which have proven themselves in the production and pumping of  drinking water for countless projects are used for the drinking water. More than 1.5 million of these so-called standardised water pumps have been sold worldwide to date, and in this project they have also been installed in the filter flushing system.

Thanks to the demand-driven selection of these pumps, the Strausberg-Erkner water board will be able to offer the best water price in the state of Brandenburg long after the Spitzmühle waterworks have been completed. Even if demand for water increases in the future, there is no reason why WSE should not be able to offer this vital resource reliably and in exceptional quality at a fair price.
Etanorm pumps, pipes and valves in the machine hall of the Spitzmühle waterworks

Various Etanorm pump models for drinking water supply and filter flushing systems © WSE

Data | Facts | Figures

System: Waterworks

End user: Strausberg-Erkner water board

Products used:
Machine hall with drinking water pumps
3 x Etanorm RM 150 – 500.1
2 x Etanorm M 80 – 250 M 11
1 x Etanorm M 80 – 200 M 11
1 x Etanorm M 40 – 250 M 11

Filter flushing units
2x Etanorm M 080 – 160 M 11

Cellar drainage pumps + sludge removal pumps
7x Amarex NF 65 – 220 / 004ULG-145

Well pumps
12x UPA 150 C – 60 / 8 UMA 150 D

Used products

Etanorm

Etanorm
Documents

Horizontal volute casing pump, single-stage, with ratings and main dimensions to EN 733, long-coupled, back pull-out design, with replaceable shaft sleeves / shaft protecting sleeves and casing wear rings, with motor-mounted variable speed system. With KSB SuPremE, a magnetless synchronous reluctance motor (exception: motor sizes 0.55 kW / 0.75 kW with 1500 rpm are designed with permanent magnets) of efficiency class IE4/IE5 to IEC TS 60034-30-2:2016, for operation on a KSB PumpDrive 2 or KSB PumpDrive 2 Eco variable speed system without rotor position sensors. Motor mounting points in accordance with EN 50347, envelope dimensions in accordance with DIN V 42673 (07-2011). ATEX-compliant version available.

Details

UPA C 150

UPA C 150
Documents

All-stainless steel single-stage or multistage centrifugal pump in ring-section design, suitable for vertical or horizontal installation, for well diameters of 150 mm (6 inches) and above.

Details

Amarex NS

Amarex NS
Documents

Vertical single-stage submersible motor pump for wet installation, with cutter (S), stationary or transportable version. Amarex N pumps are floodable, single-stage, single-entry close-coupled pump sets which are not self-priming. ATEX-compliant version available.

Details

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