Water Hammer Prevention on Pump Station Power Failure in Griffith, New South Wales

Background Growing Community and Water Demands

Strengthening Regional Infrastructure

In the Riverina region in Southern New South Wales lies a rural town with a strong southern European influence, given the majority of the community are of Italian descent. As the community and agriculture, rich in crops such as rice, cotton, citrus, almonds and more, continue to grow each year from the populated community of 27,000, the Bermad team partnered with Griffith City Council to replace a critical component in the ageing water network in the region.

The Challenge Ageing Surge Protection at Pump Station

Securing a Critical Pipeline

The local council (Griffith City Council) run the water and sewage network in the region, which has a major water source from the Murrumbidgee River, yet parts of the water network are stretched as the community and industry continue to grow.

As one of the most important water pipelines operating in the region, the Bermad team were chosen to assist in finding a solution to protect the network when experiencing power failure conditions at their pumping station.

Designed in the 1980s, the existing pump station has a surge mitigation system designed that incorporated an actuated butterfly valve that would open under electrical instructions in the event of power failure at the station. This product was ageing and was proving to be an area of concern for the engineers as to its reliability as the importance of the pipeline is everything to the town.

The Solution Reliable Protection for Decades

Surge Anticipation with 735EN Valve

Griffith City Council has previously had considerable experience using the Bermad 700 series control valves in both pressure reducing and pressure sustaining applications. After partnering with Griffith City Council, Bermad’s’ Mitch Jasnos worked to investigate and provide a hydraulic solution that was able to replace the existing surge anticipation system.

The process for Mitch was as follows:

Visit the water treatment plant site and understand the existing system, taking careful note of the hydraulics in the pipeline and pump station operating conditions.
Witness a pump start and stop event to evaluate the standard operating pressures under normal conditions.
Provide a surge report from BERMAD Australia showing how our solution would operate under power failure conditions.
Provide a control solution that included a 300mm Bermad 735EN surge anticipation valve to replace the butterfly valve.
On successful supply, we had pre-commissioning meetings discussing how we would safely test and what to expect.
During actual testing, we were there to provide on-site support in setting the valves and providing product training.
On successful commissioning, we backed up with full operation manuals and commissioning reports.

Valve Details:

Bermad DN300 WW-735-M-EN surge anticipating valve.

The successful commissioning of the Bermad DN300 WW-735-M-EN surge anticipating valve performed as expected and dissipated considerably less water as we were able to calculate the water discharge and control the flow to the required amount which was not possible with the previous butterfly valve installation.

The installation of the DN300 WW-735-M-EN surge anticipating valve ensures that Griffith City Council and the wider region will have excellent security on the pumping station over the next 50 years, thanks to the innovative technology at BERMAD Australia.

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