Fuel cell provides power to water tank monitoring equipment
Wessex Water treats and supplies 280 million litres of water a day to 1.3 million customers - approximately one tonne of water to every customer weekly across the south west of England including Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, most of Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire. The region includes a significant number of rural areas, all of which need a reliable, high quality service.
Due to their rural nature, some of these locations have no access to mains power to monitor the supply. One such area in Wiltshire is supplied by a large water tank, with equipment to monitor water levels, which draws 1A, 24VDC continuously. This was previously powered by two wind turbines and 6 solar panels, supporting the batteries.
In the summer, this system operated quite well. However, in the winter months, when insufficient renewable power was available, frequent site visits were needed to change the batteries. Indeed, Wessex Water spent £3,000 on site visits and battery changes last winter.
Wessex Water needed a reliable power source, to operate all year round, whilst still maximizing the potential of the wind and solar power solutions when possible. They also wanted to reduce site visits, whilst being confident that the water level monitoring equipment was operating successfully. The company approached Fuel Cell Systems Ltd (FCSL) to find out whether fuel cells could provide a solution.
EFOY Pro
Having visited the site and assessed the current equipment, FCSL recommended an EFOY Pro 2400 Duo fuel cell inside a ProCube 2060A enclosure. This fuel cell provides the power needed and the enclosure holds 56 litres of methanol fuel, enabling the system to run for weeks on end without the need for an engineer to visit. The fuel cell was connected to the batteries alongside the renewable power, enabling Wessex Water to use the wind and solar power where possible, but with a reliable back-up. A remote monitoring system, StackWatch, was provided, allowing the operator to remotely see the battery voltage and fuel level and whether any errors had occurred.
Henry Mills from FCSL commented “Since installation in December 2019, up to mid-April 2020, no calls to site have been needed. The fuel cell will not need to run much over the summer, but will be in automatic standby, ready to switch to charge mode when needed.”