Some weeks ago I wrote a story for Lemwig Müllers Magazine Aktu about energy savings at one of the largest water service companies in Denmark. The savings on the power bill is now about 30% but when the program is fully implemented the savings will be up to 60%. The cool thing is that it is solely done by writing a smart code to the PLCs (small industrial computers). that controls the various pumps at the plant.

The massive power savings came as a surprise to the water plant management. They just ordered new PLC-units to control and monitor their pumps, but the delivering company Picca had a brilliant programmer. He understood the plants function and needs and in few days he wrote a piece of code, uploaded it to the PLCs and now the plant saves power big time.

A water plant pumps water from the underground to a central buffer tank that secures the need of the costumers at peak periods like in the morning when people are showering. This is normally done with full power on the pumps just in time to fill the buffer tanks. By lowering the speed of the pumps and letting them run for a longer time, the power consumption can be lowered significantly.
The programmer at Picca, tells me that this is the first time such a project has been done and the possibilities are huge. It is estimated that 20% of the worlds total power usage is used on moving water from one place to another.