215-968-7577
Logo

Municipal: Water / Wastewater / Landfill


Job Note: Large Waste Water Treatment Plant Scada Upgrade

April 24, 2024 | Application NotesMunicipal: Water / Wastewater / Landfill

 

Waste Water Treatment Plant
Northeast, USA
Construction Costs: $250K

Large Waste Water Treatment Plant
Northeast, USA
Construction Costs: $350K

Services Provided

 

  • SCADA Systems

  • Remote I/O Racks & OIT’s

  • PAC Control System

  • Wireless Communication

    Systems

  • Switches & Fiber Runs

  • Enclosures

  • Installation Services



scada upgrade job note
scada upgrade job note-2

SCADA upgrade for sludge tanks, DO tanks, chlorine control, hypo tanks, thickeners and digesters including all field devices, enclosures and communication systems.

Our customer had a SCADA system in place that monitored the boilers and the gas detection system. However, an excessive amount of time was spent collecting data from remote chart recorders and indicators.

The Iconics SCADA system was expanded four-fold in order to bring in many remote parts of the plant. Twenty-five new stainless steel enclosures were installed— each being connected back to the control

room with a mix of serial comms, ethernet radios,fiber cable and copper ethernet. This meant that five-hundred new I/O was added to the control room screens along with alarms for dozens of key plant parameters.

With the new SCADA system in place, the time spent driving to remote parts of the plant has been significantly reduced as was the speed with which problems could be identified.

See pdf application note here!

CONTACT US HERE FOR YOUR SOLUTION NEEDS



Application Note: Monitoring Methane at a Landfill

March 15, 2024 | Application NotesMunicipal: Water / Wastewater / Landfill

Flare System Retrofit A Turnkey Solution

Problem

Outdated Control System for Flare Operation

A landfill customer was in need of a new control system for their flare operation— a secondary disposal path for methane. Their current system was 20 years old, outdated, and remained dormant for 4 years.

Their old panel had an obsolete circular chart recorder. Since their system was down for 4 years, NSI worked with them through the process of identifying potential roadblocks and old units that needed to be replaced.

before
before interior
Resized-Resized-20230303-110350

Solution

Neal Systems redesigned and retrofitted their old system with custom screens and newer technology, creating a cleaner, EPA compliant, operator interface.

NSI retrofitted and rewired their current panel with Foxboro Scadapack 474 RTU and Eurotherm Nanodac for recording and PID loop control. The Scadapack 474 is ruggedized and able to operate in harsh environments, which makes it the perfect solution for outdoor operations.

exterior after
interior after

Conclusion

 
With Neal Systems’ solution, the landfill’s methane flare is operable and compliant with EPA regulations and recording requirements. The new solution provides the customer with reduced operator involvement in startup and operation. They can simply turn it on and forget about it. Our customer now has a viable secondary disposal path for methane in the event that their generators are unavailable.

Labor

Custom panel creation

Field Installation/Modification

Custom Engineering drawings

Integration with existing field devices

Trained staff and provided back-end support

Read Application Note PDF Here.

Solutions Delivered

Cleaner/more intuitive and capable operator interface 

Easier data recording and storage

Custom screens for flare operation and maintenance Worked with customer to revive dormant system

Products

Foxboro Scadapack RTU

ScadP47x_CP21013_web

Eurotherm Nanodac (recorder/controller)

nanodac_34_L_Hor



Job Note: Wide Area Wireless Network Upgrade

March 15, 2024 | Application NotesMunicipal: Water / Wastewater / Landfill

 

Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission

Newark, NJ

Construction Costs: $30K

 

  •  
Passaic Valley Map -1

Services Provided

  • Wireless I/O Radio & Cellular Site Survey

  • Network Infrastructure Consultation

  • Data Acquisition Instrumentation Consultation

Passaic Valley Map -2

Wireless Communications Network Improves Sewage Plant Efficiency and Preparedness

Neal Systems supplied both hardware and engineering services to assist a major northern New Jersey wastewater treatment plant in designing, implementing, and integrating into the plant SCADA a wide area wireless communications network.


Consisting of more than 90 unlicensed 900 MHz and cellular I/O radios, the network linked together remote instrumentation stations within a municipal sewer system covering a region approximately 200 square miles in size. In addition to an I/O radio, each remote station contained instruments and sensors for measuring sewage flow, level, and toxicity levels at each of over 80 locations throughout the entire sewer system.

 

The wireless network delivered remote station data to the plant SCADA where operators could analyze it and take appropriate action to ensure the plant was adequately prepared to process the amounts of raw sewage the remote stations predicted was headed toward the plant.


The network greatly improved plant efficiency and its ability to quickly react to changing influent conditions – most especially in times of when run off from fast moving rainstorms or melting snow caused by unexpectedly warm winter weather would otherwise strain plant resources.

 

Link to job note pdf here!



Job Note: Waste Water Treatment Plant Scada Upgrade

January 31, 2024 | Application NotesMunicipal: Water / Wastewater / Landfill

 

Waste Water Treatment Plant
Northeast, USA
Construction Costs: $250K

Waste Water Treatment Plant
Northeast, USA
Construction Costs: $250K

Services Provided

  • SCADA Systems

  • Remote I/O Racks & OIT’s

  • PAC Control System

  • Wireless Communication

    Systems

  • Cyber Security Consulting

  • Enclosures

  • Installation Services



WARDS ISLAND SCREEN
enclosure

SCADA upgrade for gas detection, alarm annunciator replacement, wet well, MSP’s, DO tanks, digesters, hypo tanks, chlorine control and final effluent including all field devices, enclosures and communication systems.

Our customer’s previous system covered only half the plant and did not provide any reporting or reliable alarming. The operators never used the system because of communication failures and unreliable data.

The system NSI designed was entirely Ethernet based, but used copper, fiber, and wireless to reach all areas. Cyber security was designed into the system with whitelisting and MAC address filtering along with a firewall performing deep packet inspection. Different remote I/O racks, multi-loop controllers, PAC’s and OIT’s were used to bring in the 400 new I/O points— all using either Modbus RTU or Modbus TCP.

NSI brought a specific expertise in Chlorine dosing control to the facility, reducing their Sodium Hypochlorite consumption by 15% whilst improving the stability of the residual Chlorine.

The plant finished up with a system that included all areas allowing operators to monitor a sizeable area from a central location. Remote view nodes using a browser allowed management to interrogate the plant at any time and the added reports allowed for more effective regulatory compliance.



Application Note: Designing A Wireless SCADA System for a Municipal Water Plant

May 3, 2023 | Application NotesCompany NewsMunicipal: Water / Wastewater / Landfill

Abstract

A large water filtration plant was in need of a wireless control system for their 20 pumping stations scattered a few square miles apart from each other. Their previous system was failing and hardware was no longer being supported. Operators would run from pump to pump, hoping to catch any issues before they became bigger problems. Moreover, the growing forests and terrain made it difficult for the radios to communicate effectively. Neal Systems redesigned and built them a brand new system, migrating their system to the new one while keeping the existing one operating as possible.

Task

Their new system needed to control, record, and monitor data from their pumps i.e. flow, pressure, well depth, etc. Regulations require monthly pump data, so the ability to view historical data and generate reports is vital. The customer wanted to use wireless technology. Ethernet base licensed radio and cellular modems were used to communicate around terrain and forested areas.

Solution

With that in mind, NSI designed a communications network around terrain and trees, and set up radio communications. Elpro radios were used for the licensed radio communications, and Scadacore celluar modems were used where license radio communication wasn’t usable. The communication protocol is DNP3, which allows the plant to view time-stamped data even when the network connection is lost. DNP3 is great for plants that have strict regulatory requirements. The Schneider Electric SCADAPak 474’s were the control PLCs, and GeoSCADA was used for the scada system, allowing them to monitor and control the system and
view historical data. XLReporter was used to create spreadsheet based reports from the GeoSCADA historical data. SCADACore system is used to monitor the system for alarm conditions and call plant operator(s) when alarms occur.

Conclusion

Neal Systems replaced all broken hardware and communication systems, while installing, testing, and programming all of the equipment. NSI also trained their operators on how to use the new system. Operators no longer have to run from pump to pump, as they can now monitor their systems remotely. Most importantly, they are able to record and monitor data with reduced failures. They are better able to see data in real-time, even off network, which reduces downtime. With Neal System’s new design, the water filtration plant is better prepared to meet regulatory requirements with ease.

Example Screens

Example Screens

Screen Shot 2023-05-04 at 10.13.42 AM

Download the PDF here!


E-Newsletter Sign Up