Less ebb, more flow. Smart drive technologies optimising pump performance for the water and wastewater industry

Marcomms Manager Nigel Evans elaborates, “The heatwaves of summer 2026 focused media and public attention on Europe’s water supply – from power shortages caused by challenges with cooling nuclear reactors and lack of water to power hydroelectric plants, to diminishing drinking water reserves. Add this to aging infrastructure and increasing global demand, and water service providers worldwide are finding themselves under increasing pressure.

“Pumps play a critical role in all aspects of the water supply and treatment industry – from delivering drinking quality water to consumers, to moving effluent in sewage treatment plants – keeping water flowing requires specialist equipment designed to withstand the most demanding environments.

“Procuring suitable pumps and ancillary equipment for the water and wastewater industries can bring a number of challenges for people tasked with identifying the best solutions. Factors including energy consumption and efficiency, clogging and solids handling, wear and corrosion, variable flow and demand matching, reliability and total cost of ownership versus the initial investment cost should all be considered.”

Sumitomo Drive Technologies offers a wide variety of power transmission products tailored specifically for the water industry and able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions of wastewater applications. 

The proprietary CYCLO® technology inside Cyclo gears works by sharing the load across its reducer components - making them more compact, durable and precise than conventional cog gears. Cyclo gears operate on compression rather than shear, enabling them to offer high structural load capacity. This is extremely beneficial in demanding continuous-duty applications typically found in the water industry.

Submersible pumps require high-performance, robust, energy efficient, watertight motors that provide continuous power. Lafert Group, part of Sumitomo Drive Technologies, provides a wide range of IE2, IE3 and IE4 asynchronous and permanent magnet synchronous motors widely used in water applications, as well as IES2 rated industrial drive systems.

The shaft and flange in Lafert products can be customised to meet specific environmental requirements - including being painted with corrosion protection and sealed throughout to eliminate any possibility of liquid ingress.

Optidrive Eco AC variable frequency drives from Invertek Drives are specifically designed for use in pump applications. Featuring Invertek’s innovative Optiflow capability as standard, Invertek VFDs are widely used in water and wastewater applications around the world. 

Optiflow enables multiple Optidrive Eco drives to be controlled by one master VFD without the need for a PLC, meaning required pressure and flow levels can be maintained regardless of how many pumps are in use. When demand increases, additional pumps are automatically brought on stream to assist and are switched off again when no longer needed. This feature is highly beneficial in water supply applications which experience regularly fluctuating demand.

Optidrive Eco can also detect pump blockages and trigger a programmed cleaning cycle to automatically clear them, preventing costly downtime. Available in four frame sizes, the IP66 rated Optidrive Eco VFD is provided with fieldbus communications including BACnet MS/TP and Modbus RTU as standard - users can also choose from additional options including BACnet IP and various others if required.