Piping connection where water is pumped to the interconnections. |
Warner Farms worked with Arun Electrical, a Parker Hannifin customer, to design a pumping system that involved interconnecting the ponds. As the water draining into the first pool reaches a certain level, it is then pumped into the second, then into the third, eventually returning the water to the sea.
This scenario depends on the workings of an interconnected and intelligent drive system to control the pumping process. Parker’s AC30 variable frequency drive is at the heart of the system.
The system controls water levels via an internal proportional integral derivative controller (PID). The PID is standard in that it can work with any pump, but it can be tuned to the specific needs of any application. For example, Warner set the desired water level for each of the ponds, ensuring that the set level would allow for efficient natural drainage. If the water rises above the pre-set levels, then the pump will work faster and if below, will work slower, to ensure that the water levels remain within the safe pre-set boundaries. The system can also be programmed to take into account seasonal variations in water levels allowing Warner to specify pre-set values for summer and winter.
Warner considered other potential solutions that entailed setting flow limit levels, but those wouldn’t have enabled the same flow control precision.
The Communication Chain
Although Ethernet is the standard communications protocol, AC30 can also “talk” via a wide range of optional communications modules, which can be added or removed as required. This gives Warner a real-time system overview that’s accessible by a handheld smart phone or tablet.