UK units to protect Middle East pumping projects
9 Jul 2012
Great Yarmouth, UK – East Anglian electrical engineering firm Softstart UK is involved in two water pumping contracts in the Middle East, with a combined value of £500,000
Softstart is building 1.3MW softstarts for five giant irrigation pumps being used in a huge agricultural development scheme in northern Iraq, and six 3.3MW units for foul water booster pumps in Egypt’s El-Abour Sanitation Project.
“Reliable food production and sanitation are absolutely fundamental for large-scale, economic development,” said Stuart Harvey, managing director of Softstart UK.
“We are helping put in systems with life expectancies of 25-50 years, from which whole generations of people will benefit enormously as they build a modern, sustainable and secure standard of living,” he added.
The softstarts will be certified by Lloyds before dispatch from the UK and are due for installation and commissioning in September and October.
The Iraqi units are fitted with load brake disconnects and fuses and line and bypass vacuum contactors, while the Egyptian ones also have load brake earth switches and power factor correction.
A softstart briefly reduces the load and torque in an electric motor during startup. This contains the mechanical and electrodynamics stresses on the motor and associated equipment to prevent surges and spikes resonating through the electrical distribution network.
The unit also cuts shock loads in the driven mechanical equipment, while in water distribution pipework, a softstart will reduce pressure surges and air entrapment which in large systems can lead to devastating water hammer effects.
