Motors help keep Californians quenched

A WEG Electric Motors (UK) product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 11, 2005

WEG MV motors are helping the population of San Diego, California to avoid water shortages in the future.

WEG MV motors are helping the population of San Diego, California to avoid water shortages in the future.

A quantity of the company's 1865kW, eight-pole (60Hz) motors are being employed on the water pumps of the giant Olivenhain Dam, which is the key scheme within the San Diego County Water Authority's US $827 million emergency storage project.

Because the region around San Diego is essentially dry, water needs to be pumped from remote sources both for domestic and industrial use.

If there are any shortfalls in this process, then the result is huge problems and losses for the whole area.

This is why the San Diego Water Authority (the water supplying company) has invested US $827 millions in an emergency stock project.

The project comprises a system of huge tanks, pipes and pumping stations that allow the pumping and the storage of water through the region in periods where water is in short supply.

The US $200 million Oilvenhain Dam and Reservoir scheme is the first part of this scheme, and is fed by pumps driven by WEG "H"-line MV motors.

The dam itself, 94m tall and 732m wide, will not block a stream or river.

It will box off a canyon and be filled with imported water.

The resulting reservoir will cover 80Ha and may be as deep as 91m.

It will hold 29.9Gl of water, or enough to sustain 192,000 people for a year.

"The Olivenhain Dam project further underlines WEG's global abilities in the pumping sector", said Marek Lukasczyk, National Sales and Marketing Manager for WEG.

"In addition to this project, we have just supplied eight motors (four 8500kW, two 6000kW and two 3000kW) for a pumping application in India".

The motors are driving pumps as part of an irrigation project that is drawing water at a rate of 50,000 litres per second from the river Godavari to a dry region of Warangal District in the state of Andhara Pradesh.

"WEG is also heavily involved in the middle East, providing a package of 10 motors to Dubai (six 5250hp, two-pole, 50Hz, 11kV, MGF 710 and four 4000hp, twopole, 50Hz, 11kV, MGF 630)".

"The motors are driving Flowserve pumps in a new desalinisation plant that is providing fresh water to the citizens of Dubai".