Water & Wastewater › Wastewater Systems
Lift Stations
Collection system pump stations, the most common controls asset a utility owns.
Written guides in this section
Full references, procedures, and diagnostic guides published under Lift Stations.
Triplex Lift Station Controls
What changes when a station has three pumps: the lead, lag, and standby roles, rotation with three positions, the diminishing return of the third pump on the system curve, availability logic, and the power and panel arrangements that three pumps require.
10 min readUpdated Sep 5, 2026
Lift Station Lead/Lag Control
How a duplex or triplex station decides when one pump is enough and when it is not: the setpoint ladder, cycle volume, the lag call, parallel pumping, and what to do when the lead pump fails.
12 min readUpdated Sep 5, 2026
Lift Station Pump Alternation
Which pump leads, how the lead role rotates, what an alternator relay does, and why equal run hours are not always the goal. Includes the logic rules that keep alternation from causing trouble.
10 min readUpdated Sep 5, 2026
Lift Station High Level
The alarm that stands between a lift station and an overflow: where the high-level float goes, what it must do on its own, how much response time the well provides, and how to diagnose a high level that should not be happening.
11 min readUpdated Sep 5, 2026
Lift Station Backup Control
How a lift station keeps pumping when the transmitter, the PLC, or the SCADA link is gone: float backup logic, the control transfer relay, redundant-off protection, and how to test it with the controller actually dead.
12 min readUpdated Sep 5, 2026
Lift Station Generator Operation
Standby power at a lift station: what the transfer switch does, how the controls ride through the transfer, staggered pump restarts, what SCADA should see, load testing, and the portable generator connection.
10 min readUpdated Sep 5, 2026
Topics in this area
Duplex Lift Stations
The two-pump station that makes up most of a collection system, start to finish.
Triplex Lift Stations
Triplex Lift Stations — practical reference notes for controls engineers, integrators, and technicians working with lift stations.
Wet Well Control
Level setpoints, pump start and stop bands, and keeping the wet well from turning septic.
Lead/Lag
Lift Station Lead/Lag — practical reference notes for controls engineers, integrators, and technicians working with lift stations.
Alternation
Lift Station Alternation — practical reference notes for controls engineers, integrators, and technicians working with lift stations.
High Level
High Level — practical reference notes for controls engineers, integrators, and technicians working with lift stations.
Backup Control
Backup Control — practical reference notes for controls engineers, integrators, and technicians working with lift stations.
Generator Operation
Generator Operation — practical reference notes for controls engineers, integrators, and technicians working with lift stations.
SCADA
Getting a remote station onto the SCADA system and keeping it there.
Direct contact
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