Las Vegas counts on PTCpumptec

Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas, USA counts on the PTCpumptec expertise in order to make the Low Level Pumping Station Project at Lake Mead to be one of the most advanced pumping stations in the world

Facing the worst drought on record in the Colorado River Basin, and as lake levels continue to fall, the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) is building a low lake level pumping station to ensure Las Vegas and Southern Nevada maintains access to its primary water supplies in Lake Mead.

Lake Mead water levels have dropped more than 40 m since the drought began in 2000. The pumping station will allow the SNWA to pump water from Lake Mead from an elevation as low as 267 m above sea level into the water treatment facilities and further on to the city of Las Vegas with all its Hotels, Casinos and fountains.

Development of the pumping station consists of constructing an 8m - diameter access shaft more than 152 m deep. At the bottom of the access shaft, a 1150 square-meter underground cavern is excavated. The cavern, known as a fore bay, will connect with 34 vertical shafts — each 152m deep and 1,8m in diameter — to accommodate the station’s 34 submersible pumping units where 30 of them are produced by INDAR Máquinas Hidráulicas based in Beasain, Spain.

Each of the INDAR pumps is rated at 4700 m3/h with 132 and 212 m of head providing a total capacity of the pumping station of more than 150.000 m3 per hour. “These are more than 250 bath tubs every second”, Dirk Wulf from the PTCpumptec project team says. The pumps are operated by INDAR submersible 13.800 V motors with 2700 and 3500 kW, getting the required energy right from the hydro power plant at the close by Hoover dam. Pumps, motors, riser pipes and well heads are made of stainless steel 316/316L in order to guarantee a long service life and to reduce the impact onto the water to a minimum.

From the fore bay, the water will be pumped to SNWA’s water treatment facilities. The high-volume, low lake level pumping station, combined with the recently completed Lake Mead Intake No. 3, will provide the community continued access to its primary water supply even as lake levels fluctuate as a result of the ongoing drought.

“We are aware of our responsibility that 2 Million people and uncountable visitors will have every morning their shower and that the fountains in front of the Hotels will not run dry”, Dirk Wulf adds. “We have considered every single detail in order to make this pumping station to be one of the most advanced and efficient pumping station in the world”. It’s for sure one of the largest already.

In order to test the pumps and motors on full load performance, INDAR has built an additional test lab which measures 30 m depth and 4 x 5 m width. This 2 Mio Euro investment enables INDAR to guarantee highest quality standard and at the same time a short production time to fulfill the tight project schedule of SNWA. “Since the pumps need to be ready for start-up by April 2020, we gain now the time which we had invested into the new test lab”, Jon Alberdi, General Manager of INDAR says.

This L3PS pumping station with its huge 30 INDAR submersible pumps will be the blueprint for newly built large pumping stations and furthermore for refurbishment of all old-fashioned vertical turbine stations.