Serck Controls awarded contract for Design and Construction of GWMWater’s SCADA System..

October 2007.

Serck Controls is currently undertaking installation and commissioning of Grampian Wimmera Mallee Water (GWMWater) Corporation’s upgraded SCADA system, which will be one of the first to utilise Telstra’s 3G high speed NextG network. Commissioning is well underway, with over half of the new sites already cutover and operational, with the remaining sites due to be completed by December 2007.

The scope of this project was to install a new centralised redundant SCX SCADA facility (CSF), using a new Next G Wireless IPWAN for communications, install SCADA facilities at a number of new urban water and pipeline asset sites and to upgrade the SCADA hardware at the required existing sites so that it forms part of the new SCADA system.

GWM Water previously had a combination of independent systems resulting from the merger of previous Wimmera Mallee Water and Grampians Water Authorities in 2004. As such the unified SCADA system will eventually consist of approximately 400 sites comprising of 60 Headworks sites, 40 Northern Mallee Pipeline sites, 250 urban sites and approximately 50 Wimmera Mallee Pipeline (WMP) sites.

The original urban system was constructed at the end of 2003 and was seen as a pilot project for the proposed complete rollout of the urban SCADA system. It consisted of two SCADA master station servers connected to approximately 40 sites, including 10 major water treatment plants utilising Serck Controls PDS eNET RTUs and a variety of PSTN, CDMA and GSM communications. The SCADA platform software was a Serck Controls SCX6 system.

The previous rural Headworks system was over 10 years old and incorporated a number of important Headworks assets. The system utilised a combination of radio and other telecommunications. The system has been upgraded to enable the remote monitoring of these sites.

The Northern Mallee Pipeline (NMP) system was a stand-alone system with control, monitoring and alarm handling undertaken from the Ouyen Corporate office. It consisted of pump stations and flow control assets constructed as part of the NMP infrastructure. The system comprised MOSCAD telemetry units communicating via radio to MOSCAD top end RTU’s and SCADA GE FIX32 and iFIX Servers.

In general, these systems needed to be connected and seamlessly integrated into the one SCADA system operating across the region.

The new SCADA system currently comprises:

• A fully integrated ‘Central SCADA Facility’ (CSF) at GWM Water’s premises in Horsham;
• SCADA Monitoring and Control for fourteen (14) Urban water assets via new DNP3 eNET RTU’s and NextG Modems;
• SCADA Monitoring and Control for eleven (11) Headworks assets;
  - - Sites retrofitted from Symax/Citect to DNP3 eNET/SCX and NextG Modems;
• SCADA Monitoring and Control for eleven (18) Wimmera Mallee Pipeline assets via new DNP3 eNET RTU’s and NextG Modems;
• Upgrade and integration of three (3) NMP Regional SCADA stations into the CSF;
  - - Local SCX provided for operator control at Ouyen and Nyah, with data integration to the CSF. Cannie Ridge to utilise a DNP3 eNET in multi-master mode to communicate to Ouyen or Nyah and the CSF;
• Conversion and Integration of GWM Water’s existing SCADA System Urban sites (approximately 40), into the CSF;
  - - These existing sites utilise PSTN or GSM modems, DNP3 eNETs to communicate with the existing SCX server. The existing communication method is to be retained;

  Serck Controls:

  Serck Controls is one of the world's largest private companies in design, implementation and service for remote monitoring and control applications within the utility industries, with over 450 staff in 12 offices throughout the UK, Australia, North America and Middle East.  For more than forty years, Serck Controls has built operational IT applications software and RTU hardware which offer clients increased productivity and system integrity. These coupled with the Serck Controls extensive business application skills have raised the company profile as a leading provider to the water, oil,  gas, power, process control and safety industries. For more information please visit the company’s web site at http://www.serck-controls.com