Optimized strategies for maintenance of peripheral sewer pumping stations

The development of rural regions in terms of sewers and wastewater treatment plants requires a large number of sewer pumping stations in plain and hilly areas. As a result, the operation of these sewer pumping stations involves considerable effort. Incident-induced maintenance or troubleshooting (i.e. curative or emergency strategy) is inconsistent with the predictable and efficient operation of pumping stations. Apart from that, sewer (and sewer pumping station) operators are legally obligated to conduct maintenance (service, inspection and rehabilitation) of their infrastructure in regular intervals. Preventive maintenance within short time intervals (also termed proactive strategy) guarantees permanent availability of constructions, but often involves substantial effort in terms of manpower and costs. In contrast, an optimal strategy is characterized by a minimum of resource input and a maximum of operating service and safety. This can also imply that fixed service intervals are replaced by variable and demand-oriented intervals (selective strategy). Clearly, a basic requirement for optimizing the strategies for the maintenance of sewer pumping stations is detailed knowledge of possible pumping station failures, including both their causes and consequences. However, international research has yielded only a few publications in pursuit of these questions so far (e.g. KORVING et al. (2005, 2008)). Thus, this research aspect as well as other essential questions regarding the maintenance of pumping stations will be investigated in Austria for the first time. In order to guarantee practical relevance, two operators of representative sewers and pumping stations will be involved in the current investigation.