Avoiding critical failures in water utilities with SAM4
UK water utility Anglian Water has chosen technology from Samotics to monitor the health of 85 critical assets at 20 locations. The SAM4 technology has already been installed on the first electrical equipment, including network pumps, abstraction pumps, screws, centrifuges and slow-speed rotors.
Many remote assets
Anglian Water serves a large geographical area, with numerous remote assets. The company has a strong focus on proactive maintenance to avoid downtime on critical equipment. To improve their critical equipment strategy, Anglian Water is now incorporating the latest digital monitoring technologies.
One of these technologies is Samotics’ SAM4 system, which analyses current and voltage signals to provide real-time information on the health, performance and energy consumption of AC motors and rotating equipment. The sensor data is transferred via a 4G network to the cloud for AI-based analysis. The resulting fault detection and performance insights are presented in an online dashboard, where a customer can view the information in real time, in addition to email and telephone alerts.
Benefits for water sector
For Samotics (formerly Semiotic Labs), the introduction of its SAM4 technology at Anglian Water signifies an important step for operations in the water sector. The technology is already being used on electrical rotating equipment in for example the chemical industry.
Samotics considers its predictive maintenance technology to have several advantages for the water industry. 'Many pumps are often located in remote and hard-to-reach places,' explains Tim van Leeuwen, Head of Sales at Samotics. 'Submerged pumps have to be lifted first for inspection, and then there are all the pumps installed in tight underground spaces. Because SAM4 technology is installed in the motor control centre, instead of on the pump, physical access becomes less important.'
Preventive, predictive and prescriptive
The AI-driven electrical signature analysis used by SAM4 enables water utility companies to detect and be notified about upcoming failures well in advance.
'Most companies have a time-based maintenance policy to minimize equipment downtime,' says Van Leeuwen. 'This is what we call preventive maintenance. Our technology takes things a step further by predicting developing electrical and mechanical faults with industry leading accuracy, so you don’t have to service a machine until you know it needs attention. Often, we can even provide what’s called prescriptive maintenance, with recommended actions, based on our library of known fingerprints of failure.'
Frees up time
According to Van Leeuwen, the use of artificial intelligence frees up time for maintenance personnel to maintain, inspect and repair only those assets that actually need help. Samotics’ SAM4 technology is already monitoring numerous AC motors and rotating assets for various clients in the process industry.
Van Leeuwen: 'With Anglian Water now using our solution, we hope to quickly further expand in the water sector.'
