Hot Springs Strategic SCADA Upgrades
Hot Springs Launches Strategic SCADA Upgrades
Phased Plan to Improve Reliability, Performance of Water & Sewer Control Systems
In 2008, the City of Hot Springs, concerned that its outdated control system for water and wastewater utilities was struggling to meet rising demand while maintaining its high quality standards, asked Brown Engineers to help. We immediately began identifying existing conditions as our starting point for a detailed SCADA* Master Plan that identifies and prioritizes the right upgrades to meet both current and future needs.
Our proposed master plan uses a phased construction approach to dramatically improve the city’s utility infrastructure with strategic improvements to its SCADA water and sewer control system.
Step 1: Ouachita Water Treatment Plant
The City of Hot Springs agreed with our recommendations and later that same year, we helped the city take the plan’s bold first step: a new control system to replace the existing HMI (Human-Machine Interface) computers at the city’s largest water treatment facility, the Ouachita Water Treatment Plant.
The Ouachita Plant’s existing control system depended on a single computer that was becoming obsolete, and for which operations staff already had difficulty finding support. A second computer was offline and not readily available if needed, a condition we remedied by using redundant computers that are both online at all times.
We also developed new control screens of existing plant operations, tested them for functionality and installed the new SCADA control system’s hardware and software–all while coordinating with plant operators to maintain continuous control system monitoring and functionality. Brown Engineers worked closely with plant staff to develop an efficient implementation while minimizing disruption of the facility’s operations during the upgrade.
New SCADA server at Ouachita WTP
The new SCADA system features:
Now, plant operators can navigate to desired SCADA system controls in just 2 clicks!
In addition to the redundant online servers and operator workstations, the control screens are built to handle operator navigation of all four of the city’s treatment plants, one future treatment plant, and a host of radio-based remote pump stations and tanks throughout the city.
The Wonderware System Platform is truly a state of the art platform for control systems and has been running now for over a year with zero problems. By monitoring the system logs, Brown Engineers can detect and trap errors before they lead to real problems.
With all this improved capability, operations staff can now navigate to any system location with only two clicks of the mouse. Other features include valve status indicator lights to visibly alert staff if any of the filter valve limit switches fail. New backups for the system’s historical data provide peace of mind by accurately storing operations data and health compliance reports.
*SCADA: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
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