TAG worked with the City of Veneta, its contractors and
engineers to bring this fresh supply to the city’s ailing water system.
TAG’s expertise started with the planning of how the system would integrate
with the existing water process. This was a difficult task to say the least. The
plan needed to include the existing system in place and operational during the
change over to the new system. There could be no down time during this as the
city’s demand for water had to be met.
Prior to startup, a design and programming team was
established and the plan was put into place. Programmers took into
consideration all of the pumps, valves, levels, pressure and the new EWEB water
supply. HMI and OIT graphics were meticulously designed with a fresh and
intuitive layout. HMI (Human Machine Interface) and OIT (Operator Interface
Terminal) are essential to control of the system. The graphics and programming
were developed in house and then brought on site for start up.
Once on site, the integration team began by upgrading the
existing, and in some cases failed, radio telemetry to the remote water
reservoirs and liftstations. This allowed the main plant to see the level and
pump operations of each reservoir and liftstation without having to drive to
each site. TAG installed custom state of the art RTUs (Radio Telemetry Units)
at each site. These units, built custom at TAG, allow for wireless radio
communication over long distances.
Once the reliable radio systems were in place, the daunting
task of integrating the existing PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) at each
location to the master PLC began. Extensive testing and bringing systems online
with the new logic went smooth and the graphics and program married together
brought the system to life.
Using graphics that represented each of the processes and
overview of the city was a huge success with the operators. While the operators
are away, an alarm dialer watches for any alarms monitoring the entire system.
When an alarm is triggered, it will dial out to the operator on call and alert
them via phone, email or text message. The operator on call can acknowledge the
alarm and then login securely to the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data
Acquisition) system via an iPad to make necessary changes regarding the alarm
quickly and efficiently.
TAG was pleased to be part of an important project bringing quality water to a thriving city.
