Bunny Hill Boosted by Grundfos Pumps
Bunny village in Nottinghamshire (UK), has a long history and many impressive historical buildings. The new small green Bunny Hill booster station provided by Grundfos Pumps may not be one of them, but it has nevertheless aroused considerable interest in UK water supply circles.
When additional pressure was required to meet the growing clean water needs of Bunny village, Severn Trent, under the provision of its Framework, involved Grundfos Pumps Ltd.
This soon evolved into a proposal for a complete prepackaged booster station mounted in a weather-resistant housing made of GRP (glass reinforced plastic), designed to reduce all on-site activity and costs, and minimise any disturbance for local residents.
Working with Haswells as consultants and Morgan Est Plc as contractors, Grundfos developed the idea still further to provide a standardised design template that could be factory-fitted and pre-tested before being lifted into place and switched on. Such a design would greatly reduce manpower requirements as well as providing significant economies of scale, and making any future service and maintenance notably easier and cheaper.
An initial design was subsequently reduced in size to meet a key requirement: if the structure has a volume of less than 29 cubic metres, no UK local authority planning permission is required.
Among the design improvements that Severn Trent Water and Grundfos decided on during development were careful organisation of the cable installations into wiring trays that were easy to work with. These are placed beneath a removable false floor that makes working conditions for maintenance and inspection staff easier and safer. A built-in acoustic shroud was also provided to minimise any noise issues in relation to the surroundings.
The final result was a complete GRP kiosk housing with all the water supply and booster equipment factory-installed on a sub-frame that is easy to lift, transport and lower onto a prepared foundation. Once in place, the station is fully operational as soon as it is connected to suction, delivery flanges and a power supply.
The success of this project has led to Severn Trent Water considering adopting this design as a standard template. The company plans to use similar standardised, modular solutions wherever possible in future AMP4 projects.
Source: Grundfos Holding A/S
