Award-Winning Singapore Wesalination Plant Relies on AUMA Actuators

KMEDP is Singapore’s first large-scale, dual-mode desalination plant, designed to treat both seawater and rainwater. More frequent dry spells, and limited land area to catch and store water when it does rain, mean that desalination is increasingly important to the island state. With a capacity of 137,000 cubic meters (36 million gallons) per day, KMEDP gives Singapore an important weather-independent water supply.

The award-winning plant uses state-of-the-art technologies to increase its energy efficiency and reduce its environmental impact. With the treatment facilities and pumping station located underground, the plant’s 20,000 square meter green rooftop provides a park and recreational area.

A total of 156 AUMA SA multi-turn and SQ part-turn actuators with intelligent AC 01.2 actuator controls are installed throughout the different treatment steps of the desalination plant.

At the design stage, PUB, Singapore’s national water authority, was concerned that a large number of actuators would be installed in hard-to-access areas. AUMA, who had already cooperated with PUB on numerous projects in the past, put forward the benefits of its actuators’ modular design. The ability to mount the actuator controls separately from the actuator if necessary, and to orient the display to suit different mounting positions, perfectly met PUB’s requirements.

For Keppel Infrastructure, who has a 25-year Design, Build, Own and Operate (DBOO) concession for the plant, aftersales services with timely on-site support whenever needed was also a critical factor.

“The AUMA service team is also supporting another business unit of Keppel for the Senoko Waste to Energy Plant, where AUMA Singapore has a servicing and maintenance contract,” says Stefan Kolbe, Sales Director Southeast Asia at AUMA. “Our track record of timely support and technical know-how convinced Keppel that they can depend on us for any issues.”