Moore Industries-Intl. recently helped a water plant in central New York to maximize its effectiveness while reducing costs – an important consideration for municipalities focused on providing high-quality services to their constituents in the current economy. A recently released case study from Moore Industries details how the company’s NET Concentrator System helped the Onondaga County Water Authority (OCWA) modernize the control system at its water treatment plant in Marcellus, N.Y. According to Moore Industries, the distributed I/O and remote I/O solution helped OCWA achieve improved efficiency and a significant cost savings.
The Marcellus facility treats and distributes water from Otisco Lake to roughly half of the OCWA’s nearly 350,000 residential customers. Automation systems at the facility control processes that ensure the quality of the treated water and compliance with state health department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations. In order to update its operations and increase efficiency, the OCWA decided to switch from analog remote terminal units to digital control systems through an online SCADA system powered by ethernet and MODBUS network communications.
Moore Industries assisted the OCWA in implementing its new system by delivering isolated I/O modules that eliminate potential signal loop interference from the ethernet control network. The I/O modules within the NET Concentrator System contain ground loops or other individual aberrations locally, stopping them from impacting other readings at the site. The new system also reduced total wiring by transmitting process control and monitoring signals across a single digital communications link.
Installing the NET Concentrator System helped the OCWA solve several data collection problems. The ability to monitor the water filtration beds in real time has improved operator reaction time and increased efficiency. In addition, it helped reduce overhead related to hard wiring and maintenance.
Source: Moore Industries-Intl. Inc.
