The Somerset Raritan Valley Sewerage Authority (SRVSA) has undergone a significant lighting overhaul for its wastewater treatment plant.
Serving seven New Jersey communities, SRVSA treats 19 million gallons of waste per day on a 32-acre site in the Township of Bridgewater. Originally built in 1958, the facility annexed a former industrial treatment facility in the 1980’s.
Lighting Challenges
As a result of the annexation, it’s electrical and lighting systems were not only outdated but also a hodgepodge of equipment that made procuring replacement bulbs and other parts extremely difficult. The antiquated lighting also meant inadequate lighting for many places.
“To say we had inadequate lighting is an understatement,” said Sherwin Ulep, Manager of Engineering at SRVSA. “We run 24 hours a day, which means three shifts of operators and, at night in the winter, it’s really dark in certain areas by 5 p.m. Even our exterior tank lighting was from the 1980s and it was very dim.”
Not to mention, lighting maintenance was difficult. The corrosive hydrogen sulfide produced by the wastewater wreaked havoc on the lights, causing premature fixture failure. With so many different models of fixtures installed, keeping replacement bulbs on hand was challenging and, because of their age, some were getting hard to find.
“We bought crates and crates of halogen lamps and we kept them everywhere in storage containers throughout the plant for fast replacement in critical areas,” Ulep said. “One bulb might last five years, and another less than a year and, because nothing was standardized, we’d have to look for specific bulbs for each building. It was extremely unpredictable, and keeping up with replacements was a huge problem.”
The Solution
Looking for a more modern and reliable solution, the SRVSA team took the advice of a consulting engineer who was working on a new building at a satellite facility and installed some sample lights from Dialight, an industrial LED lighting company.
“We knew about LEDs but not about Dialight. Our engineer told us how great they were, that they were very robust and reliable,” Ulep said. “When we drove out to Delaware to see them installed, we were really impressed.”
The company offered the combination of guaranteed reliability, low maintenance, and improved visibility that SRVSA needed, along with a full 10-year warranty on every product they needed.
Now, with about 60 percent of the new Dialight lighting installed throughout the plant, Ulep says the SRVSA is pleased with the results.
Like Night and Day
With the Dialight fixtures, the improvement in lighting at SRVSA “is like night and day,” Ulep said. “It creates a much better working environment. Even our superintendent says, ‘I’ve never seen this building lit up like this in my 25 years at the facility!’ and I was very happy to hear that.”
In one area of the WWTP’s influent pump station where a flood destroyed the lighting system about 15 years ago, the new fixtures have made a huge difference, with clear visibility down all five flights of stairs.
The lighting upgrade has also substantially improved security at SRVSA. Because SRVSA sees a lot of truck traffic with deliveries of graywater, septage, and sludge, keeping those visitors on authorized routes is important. The improved visibility with the new fixtures enhances the quality of security camera footage, allowing staff to better monitor traffic and respond to any issues.
Once complete, the lighting retrofit project will cover about 90 percent of the plant. In about 18 months, SRVSA also plans to upgrade the lighting and electrical in its incinerator building.
