Main overview of Mitsubishi Display screen showing pressure levels

Luxury Hotel Secures Ideal Water Pressure

Installation of a PLC, variable speed drives and touch screen display from Mitsubishi Electric

Client
Willow Pumps

Location
Newcastle, UK

Service Provided Systems Installation

The Challenge

Optimal water management is essential within the hospitality sector, both in terms of delivering a quality customer experience and ensuring hygiene practices are maintained. In effect, a continuous supply of water with consistent pressure contributes to achieving the outstanding service they are looking for to maximise guest satisfaction.

When part of the potable water pumping system of a prestigious hotel in Newcastle required replacing, the facilities management team asked its preferred water specialist, Willow Pumps, to investigate the issue.

As the system featured a complex, highly automated infrastructure, Willow Pumps approached the system integrator Total Automated Solutions. As an appointed Drive Solutions Centre regional centre of excellence recommended using a PLC, variable speed drives (VSDs) and touch screen display from Mitsubishi Electric.

Water Pressure Management

installation of FR-E840 variable speed drives, a MELSEC FX services PLC and GOT 2000 HMI.

Gave client real-time monitoring and anomaly detection

“We had a great experience working with the Total Automated Solutions team. They were professional and easy to work with, and the end result was a reliable and accurate control system.”

— Neil Heslop, Technical Manager UK, Willow Pumps

The Solution

Reliability under pressure!

It was essential for the redesigned system to be reliable, offering accurate control, automated duty cycling and energy efficiency whilst also requiring no regular intervention. Coordination between each pump and both pump sets was essential to meet demand swiftly whilst avoiding the simultaneous switching on and off of both sections to prevent any over-or-under pressurisation across the system. All pipework also required regular flow to meet safety hygiene standards.

To meet the need for flexibility, reliability, user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness within the application, as well as the hotel’s need to complete the project in a limited timeframe, Total Automated Solutions specified energy efficient FR-E840 variable speed drives (VSDs), a MELSEC FX series PLC and a GOT 2000 HMI to provide real-time monitoring and anomaly detection in the plant room.

Trevor Herbert, Business Development Manager at Mitsubishi Electric adds, “Integration consideration in a retrofit / upgrade scenario are always important and here the product selection allowed for monitoring and control to be carried out using both an HMI and the existing site monitoring system. The PLC and HMI were configured using our own proprietary Mitsubishi Electric GX Works 3 and GT Designer 3 software, and for speed and security, communication was achieved by using CC-Link IE Industrial Ethernet.

The Results

Following the redesign of the system, Willow Pumps and Total Automated Solutions, with the aid of Mitsubishi Electric, were able to complete the installation and testing within four days, without noticeable impact on the hotel’s ongoing water pressure, or availability. In addition to addressing the issues caused by the previous set-up, the new solution offered both improved monitoring and performance. Even more, it now optimises energy management, with considerable savings, as power utilisation is adjusted when the VSDs slow down or accelerate.

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