Getting More Efficiency Out Of Your Water SCADA System

By Control Microsystems

SCADA systems have quickly evolved over the past 50 years from simple tone telemetry to web-centric solutions. SCADA systems were most often used in a reactive manner to identify problems as they occurred and to record system data and events. Increased demand for higher productivity and efficiency has led to a second trend in SCADA where systems are designed and deployed to be more pro-active, supporting extensive data management and security capabilities, in order to prevent problems from happening in the first place.

A third trend that is just emerging in the design and implementation of SCADA systems pushes more intelligence throughout the infrastructure to drive further efficiency by reducing the amount of time and cost required to maintain, adjust, and expand the system. In a sense, an intelligent SCADA system will adjust itself to suit ever-changing demands in data collection and remote monitoring without putting pressure on the utility's technical staff.

The corner stone of such a system is a smart integrated hardware and software solution that is able to detect and adapt to changes as they happen across the infrastructure. For example, bringing a new remote pump station online in a traditional SCADA system would require manual downloading of the control logic application, customizing the HMI/SCADA host software at the central monitoring station to accommodate the new site, and manually integrating the pump station in all reports. An intelligent SCADA system has the ability to detect the newly added remote controller and automatically download the proper control application, provided that a communication link is available. Using templates, the existing screens and reports can be easily adapted to integrate the new site.