PACE Zenith Awards 2006
THE following three companies are the finalists in the PACE Zenith Awards 2006 Water & Wastewater Category, sponsored by Siemens :
Brisbane Water
PROJECT NAME: Control Systems Standardisation.
PROJECT LOCATION: Brisbane.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Brisbane Water treats in excess of 320 ML of wastewater per day via 12 SCADA systems at wastewater treatment plants in Brisbane and outlying areas. In late 2000, Brisbane Water initiated a complete analysis of control systems to outline deficiencies and identify new SCADA methodologies. The success of the initial site, installed in mid-1990 at Oxley Creek, formed the basis for future Citect SCADA installations. PROJECT OUTCOME: The main problem was the remote isolation of each site. Access to, as well as sharing of, plant information was slow and labour intensive. Visits to site were required to observe plant operations and collect information to be bought back to the office for analysis. As Brisbane covers an area of some 50 square kilometres, travel times of over one hour each way were common. Also, the lack of HMI standards for contracted companies programming PLC and SCADA systems resulted in each site having different methodologies of design and programming. Although the control systems standardisation project undertaken at Brisbane Water was executed on a relatively small budget, the benefits to the organisation have been immense. Information is now accessible to all areas of Brisbane Water at numerous sites. Real-time and historical information is presented in a clear, easy to read visual format for everyone, from treatment plant operators to engineers and management, to interrogate.
Parasyn Controls
PROJECT NAME: Cairns Water SCADA Upgrade.
PROJECT LOCATION: Cairns, Queensland.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: PLCs typically control treatment plants and RTUs monitor and control remote stations. Engineered solutions required were: the improved management of plant operational equipment; the deep mining of process data to correlate between events in history and real time; maintaining legacy conventions during all process improvement phases; significantly improved alarm management systems; and the availability of redundant historical data, application, alarm and automated messaging systems.
PROJECT OUTCOME: The reticulation SCADA upgrade contract involved the replacement of the operational Macroview SCADA systems and Citect pilot system into a common user interface. The functionality of both systems was retained including radio networks and RTU functionality. The Southern Treatment Plant upgrade included civil works, replacement of switchboards and control equipment by JM Switchboards, and control system replacement and SCADA system replacement by Parasyn Controls. Technology applied included: real-time and time series protocols (using Allen Bradley drivers and Parasyn Kingfisher and DNP3 drivers); improved integration techniques (systems to develop and deploy future additions and conventions); leveraged existing control and monitoring equipment (RTUs and PLCs); world-class SCADA software (Wonderware’s ArchestrA IDE - Integrated Development Environment); data warehousing (historian with SQL interface); and web-based automated reporting with Parasyn’s Process Information Portal.
Sydney Water Corporation
PROJECT NAME: Reliability Improvement And Modernisation.
PROJECT LOCATION: Bondi, Sydney.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Bondi sewage treatment plant is located 500 metres north of Bondi Beach, 40 metres below ground. The plant serves 500,000 customers from Sydney’s CBD and Eastern suburbs. The plant recently underwent a $95 million refit.
PROJECT OUTCOME: Significant automation was incorporated into all designs. The advanced electrical control system utilises two-way communication and is the first of its kind in Australia. Electrical switchgear underground was replaced with ABB smart starters. This allowed more starters to be fitted into the switchrooms and facilitated changeover, without interruption. Every starter module can be accurately condition assessed. The starters communicate with a Yokogawa Distributed Control System using the Modbus protocol. Access to energy consumption information fosters a comprehensive energy management system. The switchgear has been designed to minimise against attack by hydrogen sulphide present in the plant. The switchrooms have been pressurised and supplied with filtered air to protect the electronic components. The plant has two high voltage feeders. Each can power the entire site as well as emergency generators. Old analogue instrumentation was replaced with Endress+Hauser equipment. Communication to the DCS is also digital, using Foundation Fieldbus. This allows the instrumentation to communicate with operations personnel via the DCS. Auma actuators and ABB variable speed drives communicate to the DCS using Profibus.
16-May-2006