SWPC Computer Controlled Stand-alone Water Pumping Application

The Computer Controlled Single Water Pumping Application, "SWPC", has been designed by Edibon to show the user the basic principles of operation of pumping equipment in isolated networks, exposing in a didactic way the elements involved in the process of generation and pumping. For this purpose, this unit consists of two water tanks positioned at different levels both tanks are communicated by means of a pump and a PVC pipe to reproduce the same conditions as a real pumping system. One of the peculiarities of this equipment is that it has a proportional valve that allows the user to control its opening level. This allows the generation of different manometric pressures at the pump outlet, that is, to define different pumping heights of the installation. Thus, once the user configures the manometric pressure of the installation, the water can be pumped by means of an impulse pump from the lower tank (ground water) to the upper level tank (storage tank).

The pumping unit has an industrial pumping regulator specially designed to optimize the energy available for pumping. In hours when solar radiation is minimal, the regulator works on optimizing the current-voltage (I-V) curve to extend the total hours of water pumping. Likewise, the student will be able to analyze the operation of these devices and the interest of their installation in systems of these characteristics, in order to adjust the voltage to the nominal operation of the pump.

In addition, the unit includes a series of sensors, actuators and indicators to achieve perfect monitoring, supervision and control of the installation: tank level sensor, flow sensor, pressure sensors, stop at maximum level of the upper tank to prevent water overflow, emergency stop at minimum level of the lower tank to prevent the pump from running, various indicators of pump operation and operating switches.

Thanks to the internal meters and the data acquisition system of the SCADA software, the user will be able to visualize at any time the values of the sensors and the status of the actuators, being able to visualize the voltage and current at the input and output of the regulator. In addition, the software allows an analysis of the system's energy flows, where users can evaluate the intrinsic potential energy of the pumped water and the electricity consumption necessary to transfer this energy to the water in the storage tank.

In addition, it is recommended to acquire together with the "SWPC" unit the photovoltaic panel, the wind turbine, the batteries and their corresponding current regulators to demonstrate how a real pumping system works in an isolated network.

In order to acquire a wide knowledge, a specific manual is included in which it is explained, at a theoretical and practical level, the aspects related to photovoltaic and wind water pumping systems, the pumping and irrigation systems (deepening in the architecture of the different equipments), energy flow analysis and the dimensioning of a solar pumping installation.

This Computer Controlled Unit is supplied with the EDIBON Computer Control System (SCADA), and includes: The unit itself + a Data Acquisition Board + Computer Control, Data Acquisition and Data Management Software Packages, for controlling the process and all parameters involved in the process.