A sewage treatment works that sits on an island in the middle of the River Thames, which was once the site of an important palace of the Saxon Kings, is now home to a new automated AUMA actuator installation.
Thames Water’s Old Windsor Sewage Treatment Works is located on a low gravel peninsula known as Ham Island on the Berkshire bank of the Thames at Old Windsor. AUMA Actuators Limited was contracted to install a remote controlled AUMA SA10.2 actuator to automate the opening and closure of a hand wheel operated penstock. The installation also features an indicator light system, which is fitted to the actuator’s cover tube and enables operators to view the actuator status at distance on site.
Colin Borrows, Operations Manager, AUMA Actuators Limited, says:
“Thames Water wanted to automate the penstock operation on the bund at the Old Windsor Sewage Treatment Works using an actuator. The AUMA SA10.2 is perfect for this. With the addition of our unique indicator light system Thames Water’s onsite team can now see the operational status of the penstock from a distance, saving time and the need to check the valve position in-person.
“The Old Windsor site is steeped in history so it’s great to think that our solutions are providing peace of mind in a place that was once the seat of Saxon royalty.”
Old Windsor STW drains Windsor, parts of villages south-west, Datchet and Eton which for the most part have separate surface and foul drainage being outside of Victorian densely urban areas. The plant makes good use of its isolation and generally historic (and still occasional) flood meadow land to allow for water-quality oriented sludge sedimentation beds rather than some of the more expensive but compact separation technologies and beds used in other plants.
