Wastewater pumping station in Slovenia cuts energy use by 35% with Flygt Concertor®

A wastewater pumping station in Trbovlje, Slovenia, was constantly clogging and requiring maintenance at least once a week. After replacing the station’s pumps with the Flygt Concertor pumping system, with built-in intelligence, the pumps have not clogged once and have lowered energy use by 35 percent. Xylem Avensor was also installed at the station, a cloud-based service that provides alerts and data-driven insights about water infrastructure assets.
 
The Municipality of Trbovlje strives to continuously develop and upgrade its operations, in order to provide better service for its 14,000 citizens and to reduce environmental impact. In 2017, the town began inspecting its pumping stations in order to improve them and found that one station was particularly problematic.
 
The "K3 – Kamnikar” pumping station, which serves about 1,800 residents, had been in operation for about five years and was constantly clogging. Its two pumps had to be pulled out of the pumping station at least once a week and cleaned, leading to additional operational costs.

Adding intelligence to the wastewater pumping station

The service team decided to completely rebuild the pumping station and install the Flygt Concertor pumping system. The Concertor system senses the operating conditions of its environment and adapts its performance in real time. It also includes an integrated pump cleaning function, as well as Xylem’s Adaptive N-technology, which automatically detects and resolves clogging from large debris.
 
Also included in the rebuilt pumping station was Xylem Avensor, a cloud-based monitoring system that allows operators to remotely monitor pump stations and other assets from their smartphones, tablets or PCs. The Avensor service makes it easy to connect assets, monitor them in real time and enables smart decision making based on real-time data and analysis. The service includes 24/7 expert monitoring by Xylem to ensure system availability.

Success leads to more Flygt Concertor installations

After upgrading the "K3 – Kamnikar” pumping station, the municipality was so impressed with the results that they installed the Flygt Concertor pumping system and Avensor at three more pumping stations. After nine months, the K3 station had experience no clogging, it was much cleaner than before, and the pumps showed no signs of wear or damage. The Concertor’s built-in intelligence also reduced energy use by 35 percent.

With Xylem Avensor, the “K3 – Kamnikar” pumping station operators get real-time information about the pumping station. They can immediately detect errors and determine what is wrong without visiting the station. Operators also get peace of mind in knowing that if any service or repairs are needed, Xylem’s service team can respond quickly to solve the problem.