Emerson Process Management, a business of Emerson announced that its Power & Water Solutions division, formerly Westinghouse Process Control, has been awarded contracts to upgrade the process control technology used at water and wastewater treatment facilities serving the Washington, D.C. and Chicago metropolitan areas.
The multiyear contracts involve equipment, technology and services valued at more than $40 million.
Both projects call for installation of Emerson's Ovation Information & Control system for reliable and responsive real-time monitoring and process control (using computer systems to automate and regulate the continuous operations of the water and wastewater facilities). With Emerson's process control technology, the utilities will be able to better assure adequate treatment capacity and more efficiently and economically operate their systems.
District of Columbia project: Emerson has entered into a $35 million contract with the District of Columbia Water & Sewer Authority (DCWASA) to modernize the utility's process control systems. The utility serves 2.1 million people in a 725 square-mile area that includes the District of Columbia and nearby Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Emerson will install three Ovation systems to improve operations at the utility's treatment facilities and distribution systems, including its Blue Plains treatment facility -- the largest advanced wastewater treatment facility in the world, covering 150 acres and with a peak capacity of 370 million gallons per day.
Emerson will install Ovation at the DCWASA system in three phases, with phases one and two scheduled for completion in 2007, and phase three to wrap up in late 2010. Phase one will include modernization of the Blue Plains control room. The contract also includes a maintenance agreement that includes ongoing system software enhancements, customized training programs and a dedicated service engineer for quick response.
Chicago project: Emerson entered into a contract earlier this summer with Divane Bros. Electric Co. of Franklin Park, Ill., to modernize control systems at three water reclamation plants owned and operated by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC). Emerson also entered a five-year renewable maintenance agreement with MWRDGC for the three control systems, aimed at containing or reducing service costs while maintaining each system at peak performance. Together, the two contracts are valued at $6.5 million.
The Chicago utility serves an area of 872 square miles that includes the city of Chicago and 124 suburban communities with a total population of 5.1 million people.
Emerson will install its Ovation(R) system at three of MWRDGC's wastewater reclamation plants. The control system modernization is part of a comprehensive effort to improve the control and monitoring of discharge to Chicago-area waterways, helping MWRDGC meet the requirements of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) operating permits. Together, the three plants handle 114 million gallons of the MWRDGC's wastewater system's 1.4 billion-gallon daily flow.
"We're excited to have the opportunity to apply our extensive water and wastewater technology experience to help the utilities in the District of Columbia and Chicago improve their operations," said Ann Pauley, president of Emerson's Power & Water Solutions division. "We're looking forward to providing these utilities with well-designed, efficient process control systems that will enable them to meet their regulatory requirements, while offering long-term operational cost savings."
Source: Emerson
