The Boulting Group has won the Water Industry Achievement Award for Carbon Reduction Initiative of the Year for its work with Thames Water. They won for their upgrade of the Littleton Raw Water Pumping Station (RWPS). The project involved the connection of a 1.5 mW-peak ground-mounted photovoltaic system, which converts the sun’s radiation into useable electricity. This electricity is used to power the pumping station, with any surplus being sold to the national grid.
Greater efficiency
The pumping system upgrade has reduced energy consumption by about 25%. The electrical load of the pumping station can be varied. If additional energy is required to meet pumping capacity, it can be drawn from the grid. Since the upgrade, Littleton RWPS uses about 48% less carbon than a pumping station supplied from the national grid. This equates to an annual reduction of 1.59 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
