Author(s): B. Michaux; C. Piro
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Abstract: CILE produces and supplies drinking water to more than half a million people in the Greater Liege area. With a production of 100.000 m3 of water per day, a distribution network of more than 3.550 km and about330 civil engineering structures, the Company is one of the major player in the water sector in Wallonia (Belgium). Such an activity would be not possible without very high professional technical supports such as digitized mapping or management of remote monitoring equipment. Unfortunately, the smallest structures are not systematically connected to power supplies because of their situations (wood, countryside). But it is very important to send/receive information on the quantity or the pressure in order to guaranty a continuous distribution service. After discussion with a local distributor of hydraulic equipment in business with a Swiss Company producing among other things control valves, the project consisting in the recovering of the expansion energy in a small water turbine was born. A flow of 50 l/min with an expansion of 0.6 bar is just enough for the production of energy with a power of 14 W stored in a 12 V&24 V DC battery. Then, this one supplies a PLC that communicates with the central supervision system. In the past, the energy was produced with photovoltaic panels in summer and with pre-charged batteries in winter. The new solution allows a reduction of the exploitation costs very quickly because of the high competitive price of the micro-turbine (CLA-VAL e-Power IP), now installed on 3 different networks.
Year: 2016