Remote control for pressure sewer system at Merricks Beach

Located on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Merricks Beach is a popular holiday destination for Melburnians. The seaside village, which has 233 properties (only 40 permanently occupied), uses a conventional pressure sewer system which was facing stress difficulties during peak holiday times. It also had insufficient flows for self-cleaning during off-peak periods and volatile peak flows after power failures or blockages.

iota installed its Surepoint telemetry system to help improve service for the Merricks Beach Backlog Sewer Project which is managed by South East Water. The system is used to control and monitor the pressure sewer units and pumps in real time remotely from the South East Water offices or via smartphones. It also helps to smooth out peak flows and maximise efficiency of the infrastructure.

Using Surepoint, the pressure pump effectively becomes a sewer smart meter. Users can integrate it into a SCADA network and can obtain the information required about tank storage capacities, power failures, blockages and faults, etc, instantly. It also provides diagnostics for individual properties, streets or whole networks in real time.

The Merricks Beach solution provided: remote-controlled peak shifting during busy holiday usage; smaller pipes and better flushing velocities and self-cleaning abilities; stabilised flows, providing a more efficient steady feed to the downstream treatment plant; a managed, power recovery plant resulting in peak flows 10.0 L/s (c.f. unmanaged pressure sewer system with flows up to 28 L/s); ability to shut down network during storm events to minimise effects of inflow and infiltration; and improved maintenance including the ability to remotely shut down sections of the network.

Surepoint’s control algorithms enabled South East Water to shift the peaks and reduce peak flows in the Merricks Beach pressure sewer system. This is reducing the load on downstream treatment plants, increasing efficiencies and reducing nominal pipe bore.

As the Merricks team discovered, Surepoint’s pump control provided better recovery after power failure and blockages and achieved better flow velocities for self-cleaning during off-peak periods. As well as reducing capital costs, the system can prioritise and schedule repairs, and users can scale back regular maintenance.

The Surepoint two-way communication ‘smarts’ are delivering better customer service to Merricks Beach residents and holidaymakers. The South East Water team now gets alerts and can fix faults before the householders even realise there is a problem.

Surepoint’s smart pump controllers have delivered what the project needed and rather than a typical diurnal flow pattern, the Surepoint pump controllers allow peak flow shifting to maximise efficiency and reduce costs.