The largest water provider in Missouri, Public Water Supply District No. 2, faced a series of challenges related to reliability and levels of service that were costing significant staff time to manage. By investing in a multi-year upgrade to its supervisory controls and data acquisition (SCADA) system and other investments in controls technology, the District improved performance, reduced staffing costs, and developed a robust, secure network of monitoring and controls technology.
Public Water Supply District No. 2 (PWSD #2) serves approximately 100,000 people spread across 600 square miles. Its assets include over 130 remote sites. When Woodard & Curran assumed operations of the utility, we conducted an assessment of the SCADA system to identify the cause of issues that were complicating planned infrastructure upgrades, expansion of service area, and permit compliance.
The evaluation found that a portion of the SCADA system equipment was obsolete, and another portion was nearing the end of its useful life. Communications reliability was also a key issue. To address these and other findings, SCADA system needs were incorporated into a 5-year, multi-million dollar Capital Improvement Plan.
Woodard & Curran’s approach to solving these issues used a “pod” communications method, leveraging both FCC licensed radios and cellular communications technology to provide reliable, redundant data transmission from all remote sites. It also included addressing electrical, safety, and controls needs across the entire service area, greatly improving response time if there is a problem at a remote location and reducing staff time needed to manage distant sites.
When PWSD #2 began providing service to a new area at a higher elevation, it found its water distribution system struggling to provide a reliable supply leading to customer complaints regarding loss of water pressure.
To address this, a temporary booster pump was added, but it did not solve the problem. Staff determined that there were losses in the system, but operators could not easily locate line breaks or other reasons for the loss. Pressure gauges were installed at area fire hydrants to monitor water flow and identify potential problem areas, but they required an operator to manually check the pressure several times throughout a 24-hour period. This labor intensive process required operators to drive 30 minutes from the office to check the gauges, leading to significant increases in overtime.
PWSD #2 hired Woodard & Curran to implement an innovative, automated system so operators could tell in real time where and when drops in water pressure were occurring. To control costs and expedite implementation, we proposed an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution using inexpensive, battery powered devices. This approach could be purchased, installed, and configured quickly to provide remote monitoring for flow, pressure, or level at each of the pressure gauge sites.
The equipment doesn’t require special software and is accessible from any web-capable device with a simple online user portal. Data can be easily integrated into PWSD #2’s overall SCADA system, allowing staff to monitor and troubleshoot from any location. This eliminated countless overtime hours for manual watch shifts and the monitoring identified that the booster pump was unnecessary, saving the utility significant costs associated with pump operations.