Location; Lancaster, PA | Market Served; Water Utility | Key Services; Electrical Engineering

 

The Chester Water Authority constructed a new high lift pumping station and upgraded their existing auxiliary pump station
to deliver finished water from their Octoraro water filter plant to their distribution system in the City of Chester. Keystone
Engineering Group provided design and construction management service for the electrical power and control system
portions of this project. The high lift pump station consists of a 1750hp pump and a 1250hp pump with medium voltage
solid state motor controls, and two 900hp 480V variable speed pumps. The station also includes two 2,000 kW generators
with paralleling switchgear. The generator system was designed to synchronize with the power utility and operate in a
closed transition mode when switching power between utility and generators.

Upgrades to the Auxiliary Pump Station included a new double ended 4,160V MCC to control one 1,000hp and two 800hp
pumps. The Auxiliary pumps were existing diesel/electric units with synchronous motors and the MCC was equipped with
synchronous soft start motor controllers. The control system included five (5) PLCs to control the pumping operation. The
PLCs connected to the Plant’s existing SCADA system over an Ethernet network featuring a self-healing fiber optic loop
architecture. Additional upgrades to the Plant’s power distribution system included a new 5kV overhead feeder to serve
the new pump station, and upgrades to the Plant’s service entrance substation’s protective relaying.