Dewatering processes to sustain savings when a critical system fails

Opportunities to achieve energy cost savings on mine dewatering systems are reduced when a component failure in the system occurs. Upon investigation it was found that most mines would abandon savings initiatives when component failures occur, as no alternative control strategies are in place. These alternative control strategies can be complex as they change with risks associated with health and safety and component availability.. As a result, any available saving opportunities are ignored until system functionality is restored. In this study, prediction models and operational processes are developed to construct temporary control strategies that will mitigate lost energy cost saving opportunities in scenarios where dewatering components fail. Health and safety risks are also considered when these strategies are developed. These strategies make it possible to achieve marginal savings under failure conditions that would previously be ignored. As a case study, some of the strategies constructed by the developed models and processes were tested in real world conditions. After failures occurred in the system, the new control strategies were deployed and it was found that an average of 25% of energy cost savings could be regained. This is savings that would previously be missed. These savings were achieved without affecting underground health and safety conditions. For this specific case study the deployment of the new strategies proved to be successful.