SCADA System Supports Real-Time Model Calibration in Australia

Bentley Systems Inc. announced that Westernport Water, a utility in the state of Victoria, Australia, is using Bentley’s WaterGEMS water distribution modeling software integrated with Open Spatial’s geographic information system (GIS) and Control Microsystems’ supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) to cost-effectively operate and manage more than $43 million in water assets.

The SCADA system allows field-measured data to be brought directly into WaterGEMS using the modeling software’s SCADAConnect and Darwin Calibrator modules. The SCADAConnect technology with real-time updates will save Westernport Water approximately $80,000 in calibration costs.

Prior to deploying this system, Westernport Water annually engaged the services of external contractors to manually upgrade and calibrate the water model.
 
“Westernport Water’s outlook on its ability to effectively develop and sustain our water distribution infrastructure has never been so positive," Westernport General Manager Steven Porter said. "The integration of GIS, SCADA and the water modeling technologies in WaterGEMS will provide unprecedented scope for managers, engineers, and operational and maintenance personnel at Westernport Water to understand, on a real-time basis, how the water network is performing.”
 
The Open Spatial GIS, in conjunction with WaterGEMS, enables simple and easy updates of the system. Since SCADAConnect can use both historical and real-time data, the model is not only up to date, but also has tables of previous values for trending and projections. Flow, pressure and tank-level data for each demand zone can be fed on a real-time basis, enabling the system to model real-world conditions.
 
Using the imported SCADA values, Darwin Calibrator and the demand inversing tool in WaterGEMS, Westernport Water engineers can proportionally change the demand values assigned to those nodes within each demand zone. As a result, all calculated values in the water model are more accurate, since the exact flow from the SCADA system is used to calculate velocity, losses and system curves.

Source: Westernport Water; Bentley Systems Inc.