Lower Murray Water’s (LMW) core business is to meet the present and future needs of their customers and community by providing reliable and secure water services. LMW’s area of operation extends from Kerang to the South Australian border taking in the municipalities of Mildura, Swan Hill and Gannawarra. LMW provides the region with urban water and wastewater services, treatment and effluent disposal services, river quality water to stock and irrigation customers, along with the collection and disposal of subsurface irrigation drainage water.
Just over a year ago, Parasyn announced being appointed as partner with LMW to upgrade and expand their SCADA and Controls System footprint.
What this means is LMW now have better consistency and access to the Urban SCADA Sewer and Water assets, they have replaced end of life and obsolete equipment and they have expanded their monitoring capabilities of operating assets.
The Parasyn – LMW Urban SCADA project also introduced operational efficiencies using complex interlocking algorithms between pump stations within a common network to adjust pump speeds or inhibit pumps.
The scope of the project included electrical switchboard upgrades (which required time critical cutover and transition planning), SCADA Software system enhancements, device configuration, telecommunications and overall transition planning and staging.
We are happy to announce that by working closely with LMW support staff during the entire commissioning phase there were minimal operational interruptions to the system. Of course, when expanding any system where there is an inherited communications design, expansion requires more than simply adding more of “the same thing” and expecting performance to remain the same. Nothing is ever that simple! Scaling up requires tuning and sometimes promoting improved strategies for managing remote devices on any IOT system. This was necessary as the 2G network was switched off, and a new home was needed on Telstra 4G network. All sites 4G modem and radio, were upgraded from proprietary protocols to DNP3 and also migrated across from Citect to ClearSCADA.
“The Urban SCADA project has allowed LMW to move forward in implementing a single corporate wide SCADA platform and telemetry network that adheres to current LMW standards. During a recent storm event LMW was able to capitalise on the improved remote monitoring of Sewage Pumping Stations by reducing the need to visit sites and consequently improving safety in these adverse conditions. The project required a combined effort between LMW and Parasyn to have renewed aging equipment and implement new technology which will improve the availability of real time information to plan, operate and maintain its assets into the future.”
Lewis, LMW.