Kingsgate Pump Station Electrical and Mechanical Upgrade

Project Highlights

SFU Water Supply

The Simon Fraser University (SFU) Burnaby campus is located at the top of Burnaby Mountain.  The campus water system pressure is controlled from an elevated water tower which also provides fire protection and balancing storage.  Water is supplied to the reservoir by the City of Burnaby from the Kingsgate Pump Station.

Kingsgate Pump Station

The original pump station was constructed in the 1960s and has been in continuous operation ever since.  Prior to upgrading, the station consisted of 4x 250 HP pumps, two of which were equipped with right-angle diesel engine drives.

Changing Criteria

The water supply strategy for SFU includes the addition of a new lower reservoir with a pump station to the existing tower.  The Kingsgate pump station will be required to pump to the lower reservoir, while maintaining the capability to pump to the existing water tower.

Design Solution

To facilitate the wide range of operational scenarios, new variable frequency drives (VFDs) were provided to efficiently meet the various flow and head requirements.  In addition to the VFDs, upgrades included:

• pump re-builds
• motor replacement (with premium efficiency motors suitable for VFD’s)
• replacement of electrical sub-station and electrical service,
• new electrical room
• new overhead bridge crane
• revisions to mechanical piping to improve efficiency.

The project was completed while maintaining operation of the station during the entire construction period.  This required replacement of the station pumps one at a time and operation on a combination of new and old electrical control systems, until the entire station was converted to new mechanical equipment and power supply.

The engineering team included Empac Engineering (electrical sub-consultant) and Gygax Engineering Associates (structural sub-consultant).  Westport Construction was the general contractor for the project.