Hydropower, Flood Defence & Irrigation

• Land drainage
• Flood Defence
• Irrigation
• Hydropower
• Fish Protection
• Water Treatment
• Automation

The agricultural potential of land submerged beneath water tables has long been recognized, and appropriate drainage solutions have been developed over centuries. For effective land drainage, water levels are controlled in low-lying areas via a system of drains with pumping stations of varying sizes located within that drain system to pump water out to sea.

Agricultural production has been enhanced down the millennia by the intelligent application of irrigation systems. Water is retained in low rainfall periods to irrigate agricultural land. In high rainfall periods, water is pumped through drains to the sea to prevent land flooding and the inevitable material and human cost that can result.

As the world focuses ever increasingly on exploiting renewable alternatives to fossil fuel energy sources, it is perhaps inevitable that hydropower, an ancient method of harnessing the kinetic energy of water, has attracted the attention of those who wish to challenge the carbon fuel hegemony.

Ensuring that pumping stations can continue to remove water as designed is a key factor in flood prevention. This is rendered impossible if excessive debris builds up on bar screens upstream of the pump stations that they are designed to protect. It is vital to lives and property that such bar screens are kept clear to ensure that pumps can discharge flood waters effectively.

Dams, pumping stations and invasive species all threaten fish as they migrate through river systems. Abstraction systems, hydropower systems and pumping stations must all be designed to ensure minimal impact on fish species, especially on those that are threatened or endangered. Ovivo’s variety of solutions minimizes the impact of water intake systems on fish. Sound projector arrays, bio-acoustic fish fences and fish-friendly system designs, are all deployed to great affect across the globe.

Bar screens that protect pumping stations have long been raked and kept clear manually to ensure effective operation. Increased climatic volatility across the globe means that the demands placed on pumping stations have increased and many more are being used far more, and increasingly regularly. The requirement to keep upstream bar screens clean has become increased proportionately in consequence. Greater volumes of debris pose greater health risks to operators. Ovivo has considerable experience of installing fully automated cleaning systems that limit human contact with the great volumes of potentially harmful matter that its systems screen.