What are the advantages of having redundant pumps in a lift station?

jweddell

Romtec Utilities designs package lift stations with a redundant pump whenever possible. This is because there are several advantages to this type of design. The principal advantage is that if one pump goes offline then the redundant pump can kick on to handle the peak flow of the system. For example, in a duplex system (2 pumps) each pump is capable of pumping the peak flow on its own, hence the redundancy. Another strong advantage with pump redundancy is that each pump alternates between pumping cycle starts. This rotation between pump starts sustains an equal run-time between the pumps and their maintenance schedules. It also extends the life of each pump by preventing continuous operation. The final advantage of pump redundancy is handling emergency high flow scenarios. In some instances, inflow rates can suddenly surge above the peak flow, whether from inflow and infiltration or otherwise. A redundant pump can then operate with the other pump (or pumps) to handle the excess inflow rates.