Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), a Massachusetts public authority established to provide wholesale water and sewer services to 2.5 million people and more than 5,500 large industrial users in 61 metropolitan Boston communities, conducted an in-house Pump System Optimization (PSO) Program in November as a precursor to a pump system assessment of all its facilities.

The Pump System Optimization (PSO) Program was developed by the Hydraulic Institute for engineers, operations, facilities, maintenance, and management personnel to educate their staff in operating pump systems more efficiently and understand how a pump system optimization process identifies problematic areas that represent the greatest MWRA opportunities for energy savings improvement.

David Shea, Maintenance Manager, MWRA, Deer Island Treatment Plant, states, “Our goal with this PSO course and the upcoming pump system assessments at all our facilities is to gain valuable new skills to improve our pump system efficiency and reduce MWRA energy and operating costs.” 

The Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, which cost over $3 billion to erect, is the second largest plant of its kind in the United States, operating at a maximum flow of over 1.2 billion gallons a day.  Additionally, MWRA is currently working with A. W. Chesterton on a new pilot program to coat more pumps and components to improve performance and energy efficiency. 

The Hydraulic Institute provides product-neutral pumps training conducted by subject matter experts, such as William C. Livoti from WEG Electric, who share their many years of experience.  William Livoti notes, “The Hydraulic Institute PSO course is a tested and proven program that delivers positive change on how organizations view and operate pump systems.  By hosting a PSO course, companies can obtain greater energy efficiency, bottom-line savings as well as higher reliability and improved productivity through pump system optimization.”

A.W. Chesterton Company and WEG Electric Corp. co-hosted this particular pump system optimization training course.

Through the PSO course, MWRA plans to develop specific skills to identify a broad range of system improvement opportunities that will determine where to focus their efforts within their own organization.  The company also anticipates developing specific action plans with a clear business justification and a long-term roadmap that outlines a return on their investment in less than two years.

The HI course for both days conveyed the importance of energy conservation to MWRA and how they will drive change and operate pump systems.   Through this PSO course, MWRA will better comprehend how optimized pump system are more energy efficient and reliable overall. HI will be working closely with MWRA in 2016 on other technical training programs to further extend their energy savings objectives.

For more information on HI Pump Systems Optimization Programs, refer to the website at www.Pumps.org or call Mark Sullivan, Director, Education & Marketing, Hydraulic Institute at 973-349-5329.