In 2011, Clearwater Controls – a division of ID Systems (UK), Scottish Water’s Supplier of the Year – patented an innovative yet cost-effective solution to the widespread problem of wastewater pump blockages.
Today, the multi award-winning Deragger II has brought substantial financial, environmental and time-saving benefits to water utilities throughout the UK and has trialled successfully in the US.
The Deragger II is a low-voltage electronic pump management system, which, due to its compact size, can be easily retrofitted into existing pump control panels.
It boasts state-of-the-art network communication capabilities and delivers real-time protection to eliminate blockages as they form. Thus, it runs a clean impeller at all times and eradicates the time-consuming and costly necessity of manually lifting pumps.
The sophisticated power-analysing technology of the Deragger II provides exceptional diagnostics and monitoring of the current pump state. This can be utilised to log the performance of the pump over a period of time and to predict failures.
The Deragger II is matched to the pump during commissioning, which means no operator input or adjustment is required afterwards. With a protection range of 0 to 840A, the device is suitable for any three-phase pump.
If additional functionality is required, apps can be added to the unit. These include wet well clean cycle, auto reset, remote reset, odour control, batch pumping and dry run protection.
Scottish Water was the first utility to trial the Deragger II. The technology is suitable for pumps of all sizes and is the perfect solution for smaller pumps, since these are especially vulnerable to excess ragging. As the majority of Scottish Water’s pumping stations fall into the smaller category, the utility commits significant resources towards reacting to blockages.
Ross Point Pumping Station, adjacent to Burntisland Beach in Fife, was chosen for the trial. The station typically experienced two to five call outs per week but has reported no ragging issues since installation of the Deragger II in April 2011, while electrical consumption has fallen by 35 per cent. The payback period was five months, with a cost benefit of over £8,000 in the first year alone.
Graham McIvor, Managing Director of Clearwater Controls, explained the motivations behind the Deragger II:
“We wanted to design a device that would provide uninterrupted monitoring, with pump control and overload protection. We came up with a state-of-the-art yet very affordable compact solution, which fits into the space normally occupied by standard circuit breakers in control panels.
“The Deragger II can bring substantial cost savings by eliminating the need for reactive work – reducing call outs, out-of-hours working and the intervention required to minimise environmental impact after pollution incidents. It enables utilities to provide customers with an improved service.
“As a multiple framework provider to Scottish Water, ID Systems expect to provide the water industry with powerful and innovative cost-effective solutions.”
Following the trial at Ross Point, Clearwater Controls has installed the Deragger II at Scottish Water sites throughout the country, saving the utility well in excess of £2m. Notable successes include Ferryden SPS in Angus, which was experiencing around eight blockages per month across two pumps. No ragging issues have been reported since installation of the Deragger II in April 2012, resulting in considerable cost savings for Scottish Water.
Commenting on the Ferryden installation, Peter Gillies, Networks Service Inspector for Tayside, said:
“Since installing the Deraggers, we haven’t had any problems with blockages. I can find no faults. The Deragger is excellent, and I’d have them installed on every site if I could.”
