The municipal company – SAMAE, which is in charge of providing drinkable water and a wastewater service for the city of Jaraguá do Sul, it is considered a reference into the water sector. With one of the highest coverage rates in the country, SAMAE guarantees today that 99.8% of the water required by the population is treated. Equally important, the sewage coverage ranges at top indexes. This outstanding result has been achieved with the design and installation of high-tech equipment in terms of efficiency and reliability that provide multiple benefits to the community.
As stated by Ademir Izidoro, director of SAMAE, “Investment in energy efficiency equipment is an ongoing strategy at the company in Jaraguá do Sul. Detailed studies are carried out on continuous basis with focus on actions that help reducing energy costs. These actions in the segment have presented excellent results, always seeking to reduce energy consumption and increase the efficiency of water and sewage treatment“.
Upon a partnership with WEG, SAMAE invested in the replacement and acquisition of electrical equipment such as electric motors, panels and frequency drives, as well as the installation of the WEG Motor Scan, which is the recently launched sensor intended for periodical monitoring of electric motors performance.
In one of the water pumping stations, two x 150HP old electric motors were replaced by new W22 Magnet IR5 Ultra Premium 97% efficiency units in the range of 200HP, which are driving a set of pumps that were also replaced.
In addition to that, SAMAE has just inaugurated its new Water Treatment Plant, which was entirely designed focusing on Energy Efficiency. This innovative package includes five x 100HP W22 Magnet IR5 Ultra Premium electric motors plus the frequency drives that allow control of water flow through speed variation of pump and water consumption. All these individual pumping stations are custom-designed and operate fully integrated with the central station.
WEG is ready for Industry 4.0. The WEG Motor Scan, for example, that is installed on motors at pump station No.1 collects the data and sends it to the cloud. This allows faster and more accurate decisions mainly in cases of predictive maintenance, ensuring greater efficiency and electric motor lifetime. For Jaime Chrast Junior, SAMAE´s Electromechanical and Automation supervisor, “Technology and innovation are trademarks of the company always working on becoming more efficient and sustainable.” He confirms that through the WEG Motor Scan monitoring device it is possible to have access to information without man intervention, such as vibration measurements, and stresses the importance of monitoring the historical data collected by the sensor.
Besides saving energy, increasing reliability and pumping capacity, the package of innovations benefited the local water supply company in several aspects. In one of the pumping stations, the volume of treated water rose from 60 to 80 liters per second. In another pumping station, due to the efficiency of the equipment, the operating time in peak hours was reduced from 15 to 6 hours a week. The total weekly electric energy demand reduced from 20,496 kWh to 16,218 kWh, resulting in a saving per liter of treated water of about 42%. On the other hand, one of the pumps has eliminated the need for high-speed operation and has reduced operating hours from 149 to 105 hours a week.
At the Central Water Treatment Plant, where electric motors were replaced and the WEG Motor Scan monitoring sensor installed, the saving reaches R$ 250 thousand (about US$ 62 thousand) per year. SAMAE of Jaraguá do Sul is the first water and wastewater treatment company in Brazil to install WEG Motor Scan on their equipment.