East Water uses Schneider Electric solutions to improve efficiency
East Water, a large supplier of untreated water in the Eastern region of Thailand, has chosen Schneider Electric's solutions for water management to support its clients in industrial estates in Rayong, Chon Buri and Chachoengsao.
Cherdchai Pitiwacharakul, senior vice president for Operations and Customer Service, said managing the pumping of water from different sources in many provinces while ensuring constant water pressure and volume was not easy. Many constraints must be considered, he said.
It is essential to have a control system at each station and a centralised system for consistent operation and to prevent failures that may result in changing volume and water pressure, or complete cut-offs, affecting industrial activities. Meanwhile, during a drought, it needs to make sure water reserves are adequate for all kinds of usage.
East Water has 15 pumping and distribution stations. The company’s water-pipe network is about 400 kilometres long, connecting important water sources in the Eastern region: Nong Pla Lai, Dok Rai, Klong Yai, and Prasae reservoirs in Rayong, Nong Khor and Bang Phra reservoirs in Chon Buri, and Bangpakong River in Chachoengsao, making a solid water grid.
East Water uses a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to run real-time control from a single centre, allowing efficient control of the pumping system at all times.
SCADA enables the company to access all information on the pumping system, water-pipeline network and distribution stations as well as the status of water sources. This reduces losses within the system, such as costs of pumping and water loss, yielding instant problem rectification 24 hours a day.
Moreover, clients are able to monitor their own water usage through the Internet at any time.
The core components of Schneider Electric’s solutions that East Water took on include an automatic command and control system for its pumping stations and the centralised SCADA system.
“All information is sent to the operation centre in Map Ta Phut and the war room in Bangkok, which makes 24/7 monitoring and tackling problems possible,” Cherdchai said.
In addition, Eastern Water aims to reduce its electricity costs, the main expense of pumping water, by 5 per cent. For the first phrase of this energy-saving campaign, the company has installed power meters to analyse the whole system.
“We assigned Schneider Electric to install 76 power meters throughout the entire operation to measure and analyse power usage at each process,” Cherdchai said.
East Water also aims to build a “smart station” that requires no staff to man the water stations but can be monitored through the network and SCADA system.
