Who is Rittmeyer?
Rittmeyer AG (ISO 9001), is located in Baar, Switzerland and is part of the BRUGG Group.
Rittmeyer was established in 1904 and has 300 employees.
It has more than 20,000 installations worldwide.
These are in the hydro-power, water, energy supply and wastewater management fields.
Rittmeyer AG has enjoyed an unrivalled worldwide reputation as a specialist in water scheme monitoring.
What is our relationship to Rittmeyer?
Although Rittmeyer was only nominally represented in South Africa during the 1980s, their water scheme monitoring equipment became exceptionally well known by several leading water authorities including the Department of Water Affairs, ESKOM, Rand Water and various municipalities.
Rittmeyer was represented at the 18th International Congress on Large Dams (ICOLD) held in Durban in 1995 – where they sought competent specialist representation. As a result, Action Instruments was appointed Rittmeyer’s South African agents, after receiving comprehensive training in Switzerland.
What does Rittmeyer do?
They specialise in flow measurement, penstock monitoring, level measurement, turbine efficiency monitoring and automatic weir control. They are especially competent in large dam projects.
They offer process control and automation systems, instrumentation solutions, intelligent software systems and services – including Cloud solutions.
Rittmeyer’s W2Q intelligent pressure/level technology is used at the Katse Dam, Ingula and Palmiet sites to provide a level measurement accuracy better than 0,015%.
Flow measurement for pipes
• Filled and partially filled pipes
• Penstock monitoring and leakage detection
• Turbine performance testing per IEC 60041
• Bi-directional flow for pump storage power plants
Level measurement
• Level and volume management
• Piezoresistive and superior quartz crystal sensors
• Hydrostatic or pneumatic measurement
• Trash rack monitoring
Flow measurement for channels
• Arbitrary channel profile up to 100 m width
• Robust stainless steel sensors for polluted water
• Multi-channel meter with total flow calculation
• Communication via satellite or GSM/GPRS modem
Position measurement
• Valve, gate and slider positions
• Synchronisation monitoring
• Distance measurement using a rope drum with spring return
• Remote parameter adjustment and remote monitoring
Some of the key projects we have implemented
Lesotho Highlands – Katse Dam level and trash rack headloss measurement on intake tower, to the transfer tunnel to Clarens. This includes the Muela hydropower station differential pressure measurements.
ESKOM Peaking Generation in South Africa operates and maintains two hydro stations, three pumped storage stations (Palmiet, Drakensberg & Ingula Upper dam: Bedford – lower dam: Braamhoek) and two gas turbine stations (Cape Town & Mossel Bay).
We have done the initial dam level measurement instruments at Ingula for both the Braamhoek and Bedford dams. We successfully upgraded the dam-level instruments at the Palmiet station – from the original 30-year-old Rittmeyer electro-mechanical instruments to their latest ultra-high accuracy equipment. This provided upper dam level information allowing an extra 2 hours of peaking generation operation due to the high accuracy.
All projects undertaken have been completed within budget and on time.
