Rehabilitation of the Niederbipp municipal wastewater treatment plant
The communal wastewater of the municipality of Niederbipp is pre-treated in the municipality’s own wastewater treatment plant by means of screens and grit traps. For biological treatment, the wastewater is then piped to the Kimberly-Clark industrial wastewater treatment plant. The municipality’s sewer network includes six pumping stations and a stormwater tank. All structures are connected with private cable lines and offer the best possibility for data networking. The old plant components that are no longer used, such as the digestion tower, fresh sludge tank and the former wastewater and sludge treatment plant of the Niederbipp WWTP, have not been in operation for years. The municipality wanted to dismantle these parts of the plant, clean up contaminated sites and use the space thus freed up for other purposes.
Collective alarm and no remote control
The WWTP itself, as well as the external structures, were no longer state of the art. The systems were networked in terms of alarm technology, but only one collective alarm was triggered by the entire wastewater network. This made locating the problem area time-consuming and tedious. Especially when there were several alarms at the same time. The systems were only operated on site; remote control was not possible. A visualisation and thus an overall view of all the systems was also not available.
Requirement of the municipality
- New process control system (PLS).
- Replacement of the control and measurement systems of the WWTP and the external structures.
- New network concept with connection of the external structures to the PLS.
- The alarms are to be easily localised and prioritised by the operating staff.
- Renewal of the connection to the Kimberly-Clark wastewater treatment plant.
- Involvement of local companies.
With the rehabilitation project, the plants were newly equipped with local controls. The ALLinONE pump control system was used for the pumping stations, and the stormwater tank and the wastewater treatment plant were equipped with SPS control systems. The systems were networked via Ethernet over the private copper lines. Operation is now carried out via an internet connection and the cloud-based process control system ARAbella online.
One contact for the future
The advantages of the simple project structure will come into play, especially in the event that a fault should occur at a later date, which the company cannot clearly assign to the measurement, communication, electrical installation or control system. For the future, the municipality has a contact partner for all electrotechnical questions who embodies the expertise for IT, control and measurement technology: STEBATEC.
New operations container
The operations building, for which maintenance measures would have been necessary in the next few years, was dismantled for reasons of cost and time and replaced by a container. The main electrical distribution, the control cabinet system, the hydraulic unit for the rainwater basin screen and a service room with toilets were located in the operations building. The new container that now replaces the operations building was divided into two areas. One area contains the toilet facilities, which can be accessed from the waste disposal yard without having to enter the ARA site. The other part contains the control cabinet system and the operating room. The new control technology with HMI (touch display) was installed in the operations container and can be operated locally there. In addition, operation is possible from any location using the new process control system.
«I now have the best overview of all plant components. ARAbella online shows me at a glance the status of the systems and the wastewater quantities on the WWTP as well as in the sewer network» Daniel Disler, Head of the Niederbipp Works Yard
STEBalarm for clarity and flexibility
STEBalarm enables the plant to manage alarms conveniently. These can be prioritised and adjusted independently. Furthermore, the duty scheduling integrated in STEBalarm supports the operation considerably.
«Previously, a red button would simply light up in the event of a malfunction. With STEBalarm, I can now see exactly what is happening where. It is no longer necessary to go on site for every malfunction. I can do a lot of things by mobile phone from home». Daniel Disler, Head of Niederbipp depot
Realisation during ongoing operations
Together with the office of Ryser Ingenieure AG Bern, the STABATEC team was able to realise the renovation of the wastewater treatment plant, as well as the replacement of the control and measurement technology in the external structures, and the integration of a process control system within a year during ongoing operation.
