ABB tackles leak problem at leading Welsh rugby club

When a small underground leak began to affect its training pitch irrigation systems, Welsh rugby club Scarlets was faced with the dire prospect of digging up its Parc y Scarlets pitch to locate and fix the problem. This would potentially have cost the club tens of thousands of pounds, while causing major disruption for both ground staff and players.

By re-programming the incumbent variable speed drive (VSD), ABB value provider APDS rapidly mitigated the effects of the leak, while avoiding any additional hardware or remedial work. The solution allows the team to continue to train, while the club can maintain the condition of its training pitch to the required standard at no extra cost or inconvenience.

Speed-controlled pumps

Parc y Scarlets' training pitch requires watering three times a day, with the irrigation pumps drawing water from the mains and running for four to six hours during that period. The pumps are speed controlled using a single ABB drive, installed by an irrigation company several years ago. The irrigation system features a valve control system which opens sprinkler heads on the pitch, allowing a measured supply of water that can be changed, based on the condition of the pitches.

Rather than programming the VSD to power down when not needed, APDS used a PID macro with the drive’s sleep function. Thus, when all the sprinklers were closed, the system reached a set point for pressure and went to sleep, ready to spray again at a moment’s notice.

However, when a leak was detected in the under-pitch pipework, the system was unable to reach the required pressure set point to trigger the sleep function. With no spare outputs on the sprinkler system, the VSD ran continuously, even though the irrigation cycle had finished, causing the pumps to run dry and frequently burn out. Ground staff would have to turn the systems off manually late at night and at weekends, which was highly inconvenient.

Team performance threatened

Digging up the pitch to locate and fix the leak was costly and would impact on the team’s ability to train, and potentially affect team performance throughout the duration of the work. As a temporary, yet quicker and cost-efficient, solution, APDS used the VSD’s onboard real time clock (RTC) to stop and start the sprinkler system.

While permanently fixing the leak will mean that the pitch is dug up, this short-term solution ensures ground staff no longer need to visit during inconvenient hours to manually stop the drives.

An additional benefit is that the VSD reduces the amount of water waste, as the RTC switches the system off at the correct time, while the pumps no longer run dry when the water runs out, prolonging their lifetime.

Luke Jenkins, Scarlets’ head groundsman, was pleased with APDS’ intervention: “Having to come in late at anti-social hours was really frustrating and spoilt many a family dinner. Using the drive to fix the problems may only be a temporary stop gap, but it at least means the ground staff can get our lives back. APDS had fixed the problem within 24 hours of our enquiry, so we were extremely pleased with the speed of their response and, thanks to their efforts, we’ve had no issues with the irrigation system since.”