Società Acquedotti Tirreni manages 4 well areas, two distribution lines and two communicating reservoirs with a capacity of 500 cubic metres each.
The two main well areas are located in Ressora di Arcola, positioned opposite each other and supply the two main distribution lines managed by the company.
The well area of Ressora Sud uses up to 12 wells for the withdrawal of water, supplying a steel pipe with a diameter of 450 mm that begins in Ressora and stretches to the border with the Tuscany region at Marinella di Sarzana: an interchange pipeline with the aqueduct of the city of Massa Carrara was constructed there so that both sides could benefit from having an emergency connection in case of need.
The pipeline, which is about 15 kilometres in length, supplies drinking water to 50,000 residents in the municipalities of Arcola, Lerici, Ameglia and Sarzana. The operating pressure varies, depending on the time of year, from 6 bar in the winter months up to 12 bar in the summer months, while the outflow of the well area varies from 70 litres to 120 litres per second.
The differences in pressure and flow rate between the winter and the summer depend on the phenomenon of seasonality, which leads to a greater consumption of water in the summer, and on the presence in that area of many holiday homes, which are used during the summer and generate a significant increase in consumption.
The well area of Ressora Nord uses up to 6 wells to pump water to two communicating reservoirs with a capacity of 500 cubic metres each located in the vicinity of Pietralba in the Municipality of Arcola, and provides drinking water to residents in a number of districts in the city of La Spezia.
The reservoirs are located at an altitude of about 100 metres above sea level and, consequently, the operating pressure is about 10 bar. The pipeline, which is about 6 kilometres in length, is made of steel and has a diameter of 400 millimetres.
The other two well areas are located in the vicinity of Bottagna (Municipality of Vezzano Ligure) and Piana Battolla (Municipality of Follo).
La zona pozzi di Bottagna utilizza 4 pozzi per alimentare un serbatoio sito in località Cornale: il serbatoio è di proprietà di IREN e la consegna dell’acqua avviene all’uscita della zona pozzi.
The Bottagna well area uses 4 wells to supply a reservoir located in Cornale: the reservoir is owned by IREN and the water is delivered at the outlet of the well area.
The well area of Piana Battolla uses 2 pumps to supply the reservoir located in the vicinity of Torenco (Municipality of Follo): this reservoir is also owned by IREN and the water is delivered at the outlet of the well area in this case, too.
SAT only manages the adduction phase in the Bottagna and Piana Battolla well areas.
The SCADA system
During its participation in the WISDOM Project, Società Acquedotti Tirreni implemented a SCADA system for aqueduct management.
In particular, the 4 well areas, the 5 main water delivery points to IREN on the Ressora Sud line and the Pietralba reservoir on the Ressora Nord line were connected to the system. The monitoring of the operating conditions takes place in real time.
As for the well areas, the system automatically manages the switching on and off of the pumps of the various wells, the alternation of their operation and the pipeline water inlet pressure. It is possible to set the production conditions according to the values recorded both at the meters at the outlets of the well areas, as well as at any of the water delivery points to ACAM.
On the line that starts from the Ressora Sud well area, SCADA is used to manage the pumps of the 12 wells, the inverters that manage 3 of the 12 pumps, the pressure and flow meters installed at the outlet of the well area and the flow and pressure meters installed at the 5 main points of water delivery to ACAM.
On the line that starts from the Ressora Nord well area, the well pumps and the level of the Pietralba reservoir are connected to the SCADA system: the system activates the number of pumps necessary to maintain the chosen filling level. In this well area, as there is a reservoir on the line, it did not prove necessary to connect the pumps to inverters. At the outlet of the Ressora Nord well area, the pressure and flow measured are detected and transmitted in real time to the server.
In the well areas of Bottagna and Piana Battolla, the SCADA system manages the switching on and off of the pumps when the water is “requested" by IREN using a remote control that manages the levels of the Cornale and Torenco reservoirs in on/off mode. The pressure and outlet flow values are measured and recorded in real time in these well areas, too.
