Vitens improves pump energy efficiency together with Samotics

This demonstrated how the energy efficiency of existing equipment can be significantly increased using smart analytics. The achieved results contribute to Vitens’ commitment to securing a robust and sustainable drinking water supply by 2030, which is reflected in its ‘Every Drop Sustainable’ strategy.

To achieve its 2030 goal, Vitens has an overarching innovation programme (SLIMM) that incorporates new data solutions to improve operational performance and resilience of its industrial equipment. For that reason, Vitens invests in an array of in-house innovations in addition to a select number of external solutions that can integrate seamlessly into its operating environment.

As part of this programme, Samotics was selected to undertake a proof-of-value pilot with Vitens to demonstrate how energy efficiency analytics can be utilised to achieve pump energy efficiency.

Samotics' SAM4 Energy system was used to continuously monitor all of the industrial pumps at a drinking water production and distribution facility, analysing their performance and identifying where electricity consumption, cost and efficiency losses were largest and why.

By performing this pilot, the efficiency of a Vitens pump station was improved by more than 7% with an associated reduction in energy consumption, costs and equivalent emissions and whilst meeting the same levels of demand. This was achieved by implementing a couple of simple changes to operational settings, based on the recommendations generated by the SAM4 Energy system, meaning that no additional investment was needed by Vitens to improve efficiency of the industrial equipment.

Rein Wuestman, Process Engineer of the Water Expertise Centre at Vitens said: “With water production coming under increasing pressure, we are committed to creating a sustainable future. Digitising and automating water network management processes is critical to this approach. Our partnership with Samotics has clearly demonstrated how optimising pump operations through continuous insights and smart data can immediately reduce energy consumption, costs and emissions – with minimal investment and implementation costs.”

Jasper Hoogeweegen, CEO of Samotics said: “We are excited to be supporting Vitens’ ‘Every Drop Sustainable’ strategy. Pumps account for the vast majority of electricity consumption in the water industry. That’s why, Samotics is helping Vitens by providing simple and automated actionable insights that boost efficiency and reduce energy waste of their pumps. We look forward to the continued expansion of our collaboration.”

Following the success of the pilot in improving the performance and energy efficiency of critical pumps and integrating with existing data systems, Vitens is scaling the number of assets monitored by SAM4 Energy.

Dutch technology company Samotics is a leading provider of real-time actionable insights to eliminate industrial energy waste. Its SAM4 Energy solution is the latest innovation within the SAM4 product suite which also includes SAM4 Health – Samotics’ AI-based asset health monitoring system for AC motors and rotating equipment. SAM4 Energy can help users realise energy savings of up to 15% and cut CO2 emissions.