WICKLOW COUNTY COUNCIL, IRELAND Wicklow County lies on the east coast of Ireland south of Dublin. Wicklow County Council is responsible for running 35 wastewater treatment plants in the county that treat the sewage from urban centres with populations ranging from 50 to 30 thousand. ABS was invited to install two ABS submersible sewage pumps XFP of the ABS Effex range in a pumping station in Aughrim. This small town lies in a scenic valley in Wicklow where the Ow and Derry rivers meet to form the Aughrim river.

Constant pump blockage
The pumping station involved has two pumps used to pump wastewater from 250-300 houses to the main treatment plant. The problem was that the original two pumps with channel impellers were blocking two to three times per week. This required two men to unblock the pumps and clear the station every time a blockage occurred. Although the blockage frequency was reduced when these pumps were replaced with vortex pumps, there was still a weekly callout for blockage removal. This is where ABS EffeX came into the picture.

ABS EffeX solves the problem
In an effort to solve the costly and disruptive blockage problem, ABS had discussions with personnel from Wicklow County Council. These were Niall Gallagher, Senior Executive Technician, Sewage Plant and Pumping Stations, and Hugh Doyle, General Services Supervisor. The outcome was to install two pumps from the ABS EffeX range: ABS submersible sewage pump XFP 80C-CB1-4 PE22/4.

“I’m glad to say that no pump blockages have occurred since we installed two ABS EffeX submersible sewage pumps in June 2009,” says Niall Gallagher. The two ABS XFP pumps are also keeping the sump free from build-up as they easily handle rag and large solids. It is estimated that 4-man days are now saved per month by not having to unblock the pumps. In addition, the pumping station is currently emptied twice per year as a standard maintenance practice, but reducing this to just once per year is now being considered because of less pump blockage.

High performance was decisive
The benefits of operational reliability and lowblockage pumping were decisive in Wicklow County Council choosing the two ABS XFP pumps because it became too expensive to constantly send out maintenance personnel to unblock pumps. There is also an increased focus on high-efficiency pumps to reduce electricity costs by county engineers. Because of the high performance and problem-free operation of the new-generation ABS XFP pumps, Wicklow County Council would be happy to consider the ABS EffeX range for similar applications in the future.

Above, the ABS submersible sewage pump
XFP 80C-CB1-4 (PE1) used in Wicklow.