Port of Trelleborg eliminates pump stoppages with integrated intelligence
Since installing Xylem’s solution, the Port of Trelleborg has had no pump stoppages in nearly three years, instead of one or two a month as before.
Scandinavia’s largest port for wheeled cargo, Trelleborg, needed to upgrade its wastewater pump stations to prevent flooding and pump stoppages, and to be able to correctly charge incoming vessels for offloading sewage when in port. Xylem’s solution included Flygt Concertor pumps, with integrated intelligence, and Avensor, a cloud-based alarm service. The solution has enabled the port to streamline operations, save time and money, and eliminate pump stoppages.
The Port of Trelleborg, located in Sweden 85 kilometers north of Germany, has a strong focus on continuous development, high-quality service and sustainability. More than 11 million metric tons of goods and 1.8 million passengers are transported via the port every year. The port’s many ferry lines create an effective link to continental Europe, via Travemünde, Rostock, Sassnitz in Germany, Świnoujście in Poland, and Klaipeda in Lithuania.
Frequent pump stoppages caused flooding
The port’s wastewater stations were previously equipped with older pumps that frequently stopped. Service staff were often not able to get to the stations in time to fix the pumps, which resulted in flooding. In addition, the old equipment could not provide an overview or insights into the condition of the stations or when service was needed. It’s very important to the port’s business that the pumping stations are always operating, since the port charges ferries to empty their tanks filled with wastewater and gray water (water that has already been used).
“We needed to solve our pump station problems immediately,” says Håkan Nilsson, Service Manager at the Port of Trelleborg. “I called Xylem who I knew had great, high-quality products.”
Real-time performance adjustments and alerts
After contacting Xylem, the port’s first step was to rent pumps from Xylem while replacing the older ones. Since this solution showed great results, the port decided to invest in a complete solution from Xylem. The solution consisted of Xylem’s Flygt Concertor, the world's first wastewater pumping system with integrated intelligence, and Avensor, Xylem’s smart monitoring platform.
Flygt Concertor senses the operating conditions of its environment and adapts its performance in real time. In addition, the pumping system enables station operators to deliver energy savings of up to 70 percent compared to a conventional pumping system.
Avensor is a digital, cloud-based service that provides alerts and data-driven insights for pump stations or other water infrastructure assets. The service involves installing a modem in the pump station, which communicates with the controllers and the Avensor cloud solution. This makes it possible to remotely monitor the station on smartphones, tablets or desktop computers.
Avensor can also connect to existing SCADA systems. This enables the Port of Trelleborg to have one system for all alerts. The alerts are displayed in real time and can be seen directly in the application as well as sent via text messages and email.
“Xylem’s cloud-based alarm service gives us a whole new overview,” says Nilsson. “We can see everything that’s going on and can quickly be in place if needed.”
With Avensor, the port can now keep track of its pump stations and keep statistics on water levels, flows, the amount of power used, and how fast the pumps are running. Operators also know when a station needs servicing, which is completely new to the service staff. The statistics are used to streamline operations and to understand exactly how much wastewater shipping companies offload when in port.
Fast response times and correctly planned service
The new installation has been running for almost three years and during this time delivered outstanding results. The efficient Avensor monitoring service means that the port always knows what is happening at the various stations and can act quickly if anything happens. Operators can also evaluate and correctly plan service in time.
“Xylem should be praised for having solved the situation so well,” says Nilsson. “We are very pleased with our new system. Getting great and fast service is important to us, as well as being able to trust an organization.”
The Port of Trelleborg continues to grow and will have many new pumping stations ready by 2026. A new legal requirement from 2021 states that shipping companies may not offload black or gray water directly into the sea. This raises the stakes on ensuring that all pumping stations at the port are consistently performing at the highest level. With Xylem’s cloud-based monitoring service, the port has a complete overview of the system and can prevent any downtime that could lead to flooding or spills into the sea, improving performance and sustainability.
Learn more on how Xylem is helping advance sustainability for our customers.