Scottish Water has successfully avoided disruption and reduced environmental risk at its St Nicholas Sewage Pumping Station in St Andrews, thanks to rapid collaboration with Xylem and the use of real time digital monitoring.
During planned maintenance at the large terminal site, engineers discovered that a faulty isolation valve was allowing pressure to backflow, preventing the safe replacement of a non return valve. With tankering unviable due to high inflows, the station was forced to rely on its standby pump, creating a significant risk of costly over pumping and potential impact on the nearby St Andrews golf course.
Working jointly, Scottish Water and Xylem developed a strategy to temporarily restrict flows from five upstream stations while the rising main was drained. Crucially, two of these sites were equipped with Xylem’s Avensor monitoring system, providing live data on levels and asset performance.
This intelligence enabled teams to manage flows safely, attend sites only when required and maintain full control throughout the operation.
The station was returned to full service without the need for over pumping, delivering major cost and time savings while reducing pollution risk. The success of the project has led Scottish Water to request further work from Xylem.
Mike Kelly, wastewater networks team leader at Scottish Water, said the live data was vital in protecting the environment and ensuring the complex job was completed safely and efficiently.
Realtime monitoring helps Scottish Water prevent pollution during critical shutdown
