Your Pumps Are Bleeding Money: How Real-Time Data And Generative Design Can Save You Thousands

Part 1 of the Get Pumped Up Series – A Practical Guide to Modernizing Pump & Lift Station Planning 

Are You Unknowingly Losing $500 an Hour? 

At one municipal lift station, a primary pump was operating so inefficiently that its electricity cost alone was nearing $100 every 15 minutes—about $400–$500 per hour. Multiply that over days, weeks, or months, and you’re suddenly staring down a six-figure energy leak, hidden in plain sight. 

That scenario isn’t an outlier. It was shared by Michael Rosh, Solutions Specialist at Autodesk during Get Pumped Up: A Roundtable on the Future of Pump & Lift Stations, where he demonstrated how SCADA data revealed pumps routinely running far outside their efficiency curves—and costing utilities thousands in preventable OpEx. 

And that’s before considering the ripple effect: undersized wet wells, oversized pumps, reactive maintenance, and capital planning missteps that compound the issue over time. 

The Efficiency Gap: Why Pump Curves Matter More Than You’d Think 

If you’re not overlaying your SCADA data against pump curves, you’re flying blind. During the session, Rosh showed how modern operational analytics—like Autodesk Info360—allow utilities to: 

• Visualize real-time pump status, flow rate, and pressure 

• Track energy consumption in 15-minute increments 

• Identify pumps operating below 70% efficiency across their duty cycles 

• Quantify exact cost per cycle, per pump 

“This isn’t just about uptime anymore. It’s about understanding what your pumps are actually costing you every hour—and using that data to inform smarter capital decisions,” said Rosh. 

In one example, a primary pump ran for three hours straight, outside its curve, costing several thousand dollars—in just one cycle. 

The Default Fix? It’s Not Enough Anymore 

Too often, when confronted with a problem like this, the response is reactive: 

“Let’s replace the impeller.” 
“We’ve got a spare pump in the yard.” 
“It’s been working like this for years.” 

As Adam Tank, Co-founder and Chief Communications Officer at Transcend, put it this way: 

“We’re in this constant state of chaos and confusion because we’re building things fast that aren’t optimal, then paying for that in OpEx for decades. Why is replacing the impeller still our go-to move when we could redesign the whole station automatically?” 

Tank’s point? With today’s technology, there’s no reason for outdated assets to remain stuck in planning limbo. Instead of spending months and tens of thousands on feasibility studies, teams can now explore full lift station redesigns in minutes and compare the costs of upgrading or building a new one vs. keeping the same one running suboptimally. 

Generative Design: What Redesigning in Minutes Actually Looks Like 

With tools like the Transcend Design Generator, engineers can input site-specific parameters—peak flow rates, pump head, wet well shape, vendor preferences—and instantly generate: 

• 2D and 3D BIM models (.DWG format) 

• Process flow diagrams 

• Preliminary design reports and assumptions 

• Bill of materials with equipment and pipe schedules 

• Multiple design options with comparative OpEx/CapEx tradeoffs 

In Tank’s live demo, the entire conceptual design of a lift station took under 10 minutes to generate. Within the hour, engineers could see exact concrete volumes, equipment specs, cost breakdowns by vendor, and the total energy consumption profile. 

Real-Time Feedback Loop: Closing the Gap Between Design and Operations 

This pairing of Autodesk’s Info360 (ops data) and Transcend’s generative design tools (design modeling) creates what Rosh called “near real-time capital planning.” 

It means you can: 

• Identify an operational issue based on real pump data 

• Model and evaluate new design alternatives in hours, not months 

• Validate the design against your hydraulic model 

• And plug the updated asset back into your monitoring system 

This forms a closed, integrated loop where planning, design, and operations constantly inform each other—enabling what Tank called “Living Master Plans” instead of outdated 25- or 50-year projections. 

“If you know you’re bleeding money today, why wait six months for a study to tell you what you already know?” – Adam Tank, Transcend 

The Bottom Line 

If your lift station is operating inefficiently—and you have SCADA data proving it—you’re not stuck. You don’t have to wait for a capital project to hit the top of the backlog or commission a study that eats up your budget. 

The tools exist today to: 

• Quantify real OpEx impact in dollars and cents 

• Design and compare upgrade alternatives within hours 

• Make data-driven, cross-functional decisions quickly 

• Align CapEx and OpEx to extend asset life and optimize cost 

Next Up: Killing the 25-Year Master Plan 

In Part 2 of the Get Pumped Up Series, we’ll dig into how modern utilities are throwing out static, long-range plans and adopting Living Capital Plans that respond to real data, real performance, and real constraints—every year, every quarter, even in real time. 

Want to see it in action? 

Get a demo of Transcend’s generative design platform and see how fast you can redesign a lift station from scratch—no long waits, no red tape. 
Request a demo