Superior technology for down under: The Ravenswood drinking water pump station, Australia

Australia covers a large part of its drinking water needs from the sea – thanks to giant seawater desalination plants. The Ravenswood Pump Station is part of the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant (SSDP) near Perth. Every day, up to 265 million litres of drinking water are pumped from the SSDP, the existing Stirling and Samson dams, the Tamworth reservoir and the North Dandalup dam to Perth’s water supply system. 

The Water Corporation, WA, Australia, is currently the principal supplier of water, waste water and drainage services throughout the state of Western Australia. Its operations cover an area of 2.5 million square kilometres, or about one third of the Australian continent, making it one of the world’s largest operating areas for this industry. 

The particular challenge of this project was the required output of the system – while ensuring maximum operating reliability.
 

The pump station itself consists of two separate banks of pumps – the Tamworth Bank and the Dandalup Bank operate as two separate pump stations. The Tamworth Bank is a gravity booster station transferring up to 330 million litres of water per day at heads of up to 140 metres. 
 

The Dandalup Bank lifts the water up to one of the two reservoirs at a flow rate of up to 160 million litres per day at heads of up to 260 metres.

By supplying volute casing pumps from the RDLO and RDLP ranges, KSB was able to keep the life cycle costs and required site works to a minimum. Moreover, during intensive testing on the modern test facility in Halle, the pumps even exceeded the guaranteed performance data.

The two pump stations were each equipped with four variable speed pumps:

The pumps are operated in parallel, with three on duty and one on standby. They were selected to ensure maximum efficiency across the entire operating range.

All pumps are driven by 3.3 kV water-cooled variable speed systems. The pump station includes eight 50 m³ surge vessels and closed-circuit cooling systems for the motors and variable speed systems.

KSB utilised state-of-the-art technology with CFD modelling (Computational Fluid Dynamics) to develop and optimise the hydraulic design to achieve optimum efficiencies and meet the specific site requirements. The RDLP design with two suction nozzles provides better suction characteristics than the back-to-back impeller arrangement offered by other suppliers. This means lower NPSH3 values with minimum site costs, optimum performance and high operating reliability.

KSB products will help to secure the supply of drinking water to the growing Perth region and other users of the state’s Integrated Water Supply Scheme well into the future.

Location: Ravenswood, Australien

Client: Water Corporation, WA, Australia

Application: Seawater desalination

Year: 2011

4 x RDLP 350-700/2

Flow rate: 1952 m3/h

Head: 262 m

Motor rating: 2400 kW (4 poles)

4 x RDLO 600-1075 A

Flow rate: 2755 m3/h

Head: 140 m

Motor rating: 2400 kW (6 poles)