Dear users, due to planned maintenance work you might not be able to see product search results, beginning from today (24/09/2024) 10:00 PM CET. We aim to have the full functionality restored by 2:00 AM CET.
Reliable water supply
The PTCB eFuse electronic circuit breakers provide safe and reliable protection against overload and short-circuit currents. At the water supplier and wastewater disposal company EW Wasser, they not only bring more transparency to the system, but also ensure reliable and effective supply.
EW Wasser GmbH is one of six subsidiaries of Eichsfeldwerke GmbH. As a service provider for the Zweckverband Wasserversorgung und Abwasserentsorgung water supply and wastewater disposal association in Obereichsfeld, Germany, it provides commercial and technical operational management. The company maintains and operates the systems and networks in the drinking water and wastewater sector throughout the entire association area. For example, around 5.8 million liters of drinking water are provided for around 45,500 people per day. Inseparably combined with the protection of water bodies and drinking water resources, the wastewater is treated correctly. Wastewater disposal is organized for 72,000 inhabitants, with a total of 894 km of sewerage system being operated.
The challenge
The central task of the water supplier and wastewater disposal company EW Wasser GmbH is, of course, to ensure a reliable and constant supply of fresh water to its customers. Among other things, there is a water treatment station that is connected to a water source. This station is also connected to a deep well located 5 km away. If the water source does not supply water, the pump is controlled in the remote deep well in order to step in as required. This communication is via a relay contact in the water treatment station, which transmits the signal via a remote signaling cable. The relay contact is protected by a standard fuse. This should ensure that there is always enough water available and that supply is secured.
A power-provider medium-voltage cable runs parallel to the remote signaling cable, however. Large powers are regularly switched via this system. This switching induces interference currents. This meant that the previously used fuse triggered regularly. Whenever this happened, employees had to get into a car and drive for 20 minutes to the remote plant – then spend 10 minutes to change the fuse, and 20 minutes to drive back. These service calls were time-consuming and cost resources. Together with EW Wasser GmbH, we looked for a solution to this problem.
Our solution
The glass fuse used until now has been replaced by the PTCB E1 24DC/0.1A SI-R electronic circuit breaker. With an overall width of just 6 mm, it provides the ideal protection for the remote signal: The PTCB eFuse has a robust EMC protective circuit and an internal active current limitation function. These two features prevent unintentional tripping of the circuit breaker during switching operations on the medium-voltage line. In addition, the circuit breaker is equipped with a remote signal and a reset input. This enables the triggered state to be recognized remotely and, in the event of an error, the circuit breaker can be switched back on again.
The PTCB eFuse also masters the additional challenge of the long cable path without any problems: Due to the low internal resistance of the circuit breaker, there is almost no voltage drop out, which means that cable lengths can be maximized. The precise tripping characteristic enables safe shutdown in the event of an error, even if the cable impedance enables only slight overcurrents with a short circuit.
Reduced downtimes in the supply system with a robust EMC protective circuit
Precise fault localization and fast recovery with status message and local and remote reset options
Effortless system optimization with precise shutdown, low voltage losses, and configurable current values
More space in the control cabinet due to integrated potential distribution of positive and negative in 6 mm
With the PTCB, Phoenix Contact has exactly the right solution for us. The ability to switch the device on remotely helps us to save considerable time in the event of maintenance.
Summary
The PTCB eFuse electronic circuit breakers are ideal for decentral applications at the supplier EW Wasser GmbH. The large distances between supply and load present a challenge for service personnel due to their high susceptibility to interference, large cable impedance, and a lack of system transparency. By using the PTCB eFuse, EW Wasser GmbH reliably and effectively increases the safety of the water supply for the surrounding locations.
