• Posted: June 2, 2020
• better construction, Sharlen Electric

Tens of billions of gallons of water are processed at treatment facilities in the United States each day, providing businesses and consumers with water that’s safe to consume and use in industrial applications like boiler systems and cooling towers, among countless other examples. For companies, the water that is treated in such facilities is critical to their operations, as it reduces scaling, corrosion, and other negative effects on critical machinery, preventing disruption to production, extending the usable life of assets and lowering costs in the process.

With such enormous volume and the reliance on treated water to keep the country’s factories up and running, water treatment facilities are an essential cog in the U.S. economy. And for that reason, ensuring that water treatment facilities operate without interruption is one of the most important, yet unheralded, jobs in the country.   

As the nation’s third-largest metropolitan area, Chicagoland is home to more than its fair share of water treatment facilities, including one of the world’s largest, which relies on Powering Chicago member Sharlen Electric as its primary electrical contractor. With up to five electricians on-site and a supervisor on call 24/7, Sharlen is responsible for the plant’s day-to-day electrical maintenance and installations. This can include putting in new lights, replacing burned out motors and pump holders, rewiring systems, or virtually any other electrical need in the sprawling facility.

While this work requires extensive training and specialized skills under any circumstances, Sharlen’s work is even more impressive because of the age of the plant, according to a project engineer in the facility. Though newer sections of the plant have been added in the years since, the core of the facility was built in 1920.

“We are still using older equipment in some parts of the plant, and the way things were done when that equipment was put in is not how it’s done now,” said the engineer. “There’s very little documentation for any of this, which makes it difficult to figure out how to fix things if you don’t already know what you’re doing. One of the major challenges of doing electrical work in this setting is trying to control what you’ve got power for and then trying to figure out what goes where and how it’s connected, especially when we’re trying to connect something new in the system. Sharlen is very good at figuring those kinds of things out.”

Also setting Sharlen apart is the speed with which the contractor is able to fix problems that threaten production schedules. Earlier this year, wiring in one of the facility’s water control rooms failed. While the project manager assigned to the project estimated a 48-hour turnaround to address the issue, Sharlen was able to fix it in less than a day. In an environment in which there are cascading implications for every minute an element in the production process is inoperable, reducing the downtime by 24 hours represented a major win.

In recent weeks, Sharlen has also made it possible for the plant to convert a segment of its operations from water treatment to the production of hand sanitizer to be used in the fight against COVID-19. Like many of the projects Sharlen works on at the facility, time was of the essence. Amidst a nationwide shortage of hand sanitizer, the Fortune 500 company that owns and operates the plant was under intense pressure to adapt to the existing need. It was successful in doing so because of Sharlen’s expertise and the speed with which the electrical contractor works.

“Sharlen really went above and beyond,” the plant engineer says. “We needed to bring a large industrial reactor online to make the hand sanitizer and source a Scully system to load tanker trucks. We had to move really fast and, with Sharlen’s help, we were able to. Everything was installed in less than a week. That was a big deal. We have a general contractor who has their own preferred electrical subcontractor. Despite that, their project manager told me we’re in good hands with Sharlen already and can’t do better with anyone else. That’s the best compliment I can give them.”

To learn more about Powering Chicago members’ industrial capabilities, contact us today.