Update by Kevin Packard
Hi.
I hope the summer months have been a tonic to everyone and that we have managed to enjoy as much of the outdoors as possible in these restricted times.
Work on site at the pumping station has continued and we now have all 4 new pumps installed and available to extract water. The first 2 pumps were commissioned at the end of May and went through a 28-day Reliability trial with very few issues. Subsequently, the remaining old pumps were removed along with all the old remaining ageing power transformers and switchgear. The second 2 new pumps were then installed and commissioned during the last week of September and these are now in their Reliabilty trial phase. During the commissioning period and despite the very low river levels, we managed briefly to prove that the new pumps could abstract the maximum licenced value of 164 Ml/d (million litres per day) of river water, probably the first time this has been achieved for very many years.
The next, and almost final, phase of work is to install our new "eel-friendly" intake bandscreen which as mentioned in my last report is required for us to comply with The Eels (England and Wales) Regulations 2009. Work will be starting in earnest on 26th October when we take delivery of the framework and control panel which will be assembled on site then lifted into position at the intake. There will be a 30/40 ton mobile crane on site for a couple of weeks while installation commences. The actual screen panel is due to arrive around the 3rd week of November and commissioning of the screen will start shortly afterwards.
As we enter 2021, most work will be complete and it is expected that our contractor IWS's site cabins will then be removed. There will be some additional work by ourselves to replace the old buried delivery line flowmeters within the site boundary sometime at the end of 2020/early 2021. This depends on component delivery times which are being delayed by world-wide Covid related issues.
Once again, should you have any queries or questions, please contact me via this portal.
Stay safe.
Kevin
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