Pumping and its stations

A pumping station also known as a pump room in the context of drilling and drinking water etc., is a facility containing the pumps and equipment used to pump fluids from one place to another.They are used in various infrastructure systems such as supplying water to canals, draining low-lying lands, and discharging sewage to processing sites.The pump station is an integral part of the pumped storage hydroelectric power plant.

Canal water supply 

Pumping stations are also common in countries with canal systems.Because of the way the canal lock system works, water is lost from the upper part of the canal every time a ship passes through.Also, most locks are not watertight, so some water will leak from the higher level of the canal to the lower level.Obviously, the water had to be replaced, or eventually the upper canal wouldn't hold enough water to be navigable.Canals are usually refilled by bringing water from streams and rivers up the canal, but if no suitable water source is available,pumping stations can be used to maintain water levels.A good example of a canal pumping station is Claverton Pumping Station on the Kennet and Avon Canal in southern England, UK.This uses pumps driven by river-driven water wheels to draw water from the nearby River Avon to the canal.In the absence of an external water supply, a pumpback system can be used. Water is drawn from the canal below the lowest lock of the steps and pumped back to the top of the steps, ready for the passage of the next ship. Such devices are usually small.

Water pumping stations

Water pumping stations differ from wastewater pumping stations in that they do not have to be sized to account for high peak flows. They have five broad categories:

• Water source (eg well) pumped into elevated tank.

• Extraction of raw water from rivers or lakes.

• In-line booster pumps into elevated tanks.

• High service pumping of high pressure product water

• Distributed system boosters without storage tanks in the piping system

Water pumping stations are built in areas with reasonably defined or projected demand and depend on a combination of customer demand and fire flow requirements.Annual per capita water consumption, peak hours and maximum daily water consumption can vary significantly due to factors such as climate,income level, population and the proportion of residential, commercial and industrial users.