Winner: Wide Bay Water Corporation
Project: Nikenbah Wastewater Treatment Plant
Location: Hervey Bay, Queensland
Nikenbah Wastewater Treatment Plant was specifically designed with low-maintenance, low-pressure membrane technology for the advanced removal of nutrients from wastewater and the actual results achieved are even better than initially predicted.
In planning its seventh WWTP, to be its largest and most complex to date, Wide Bay Water Corporation set out to build a facility with a capacity equivalent to the water use of 10,000 homes, or 4.8 million litres per day.
The facility, situated beside an 800 ML effluent lagoon at Nikenbah, also needed to be able to expand its capacity nearly three-fold in line with population growth to 14.4 ML/d.
Using new filtration technologies, the wastewater would be treated to a standard above EPA levels with the aim of recycling 90% of the treated wastewater from the plant.
The quality of the treated water would be so high that it could be used as a supplementary water source for irrigation or potable water substitution in future drought situations.
Acting as the principal contractor in order to gain maximum leverage from their experience and knowledge and benefit from substantial cost savings, Wide Bay Water Corporation sought to avoid issues they had encountered previously when multiple vendors all used different equipment, consequently requiring a large number of spare parts.
This time, they looked for a single supplier who would be able to deliver a fully-integrated, high-availability process automation solution cost effectively in order to ensure a lower TCO.
They also wanted an installation that met the following criteria: robust, quick to commission, easy to maintain, quick to fault find, able to provide extensive operational data, efficient and easy to operate and a high level of redundancy.
Tim Maloney (R), Manager of Electrical Engineering, Wide Bay Water Corporation receives the Zenith award from category sponsor, Greg Ferrar, Marketing Manager, Endress+Hauser Australia.
Wide Bay Water Corporation selected Schneider Electric as its sole provider. Using Schneider Electric’s PlantStruxure hardware, software and support, system integrators Conneq i.Power Solutions designed and implemented the electrical and process automation infrastructure for the plant.
Even before it went into operation, the plant at Nikenbah won top award from the Institute of Public Works Engineering for “water industry projects over $10 million” and now has a Zenith Award to add to the collection.
Tim Maloney, manager of Electrical Engineering at Wide Bay Water Corporation, said the integration of the system differentiates it from other projects.
“The Nikenbah WWTP is unique in that it is a fully integrated Schneider solution. The VSD and smart starters talk seamlessly to the Quantum PLC and Citect System using Modbus TCP,” he told PACE.
“Plant redundancy includes hot standby PLCs, redundant Citect Servers, VSD and TeSys T communication rings and a site wide fibre optic ring. A single instrument vendor, Endress+Hauser, was utilised leading to reduced risk, easy procurement and system integration.”
The judges said the project should be congratulated on the quality of its implementation whilst balancing environmental, cost and performance objectives.
Check out all the Finalists in the Water and Wastewater category.
The 2011 Zenith Water and Wastewater Award is sponsored by Endress+Hauser Australia.
Endress+Hauser Australia Pty Ltd, a full subsidiary of the Endress+Hauser Group, focuses on supply, service and training of a complete range of process field measurement and instrumentation solutions for all process industries. Sales and services are based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Newcastle with additional sales offices in Adelaide and Gladstone.