How to Troubleshoot an Underperforming Pump Station

An engineer may find him/herself in the awkward situation when a new pump station does not perform as expected at start-up. This leads into a frenzy of determining responsibility for the failure. Once the dust settles and the design documents have been declared sound by the owner or by a third party review, the engineer is usually asked by the owner to resolve the pump station performance issues. The possible causes for poor pump station performance are numerous and finding the correct cause in a short amount of time can be a daunting exercise in extreme cases. When an extreme case drops in the engineer's lap, it is important for the engineer to use a methodical process at the onset of the investigation to gain and maintain the owner's confidence and to ensure that all of the issues are efficiently found and resolved. This paper presents an investigation methodology that was successfully used to troubleshoot an underperformingsewage pump station.