South Dublin County Council awards major SCADA infrastructure project to EMR

Leading SCADA and instrumentation provider, EMR Integrated Solutions today announced it has secured a €100,000 contract to provide a SCADA system to monitor the operation or the six largest pumping stations within the South Dublin County Council (SDCC) network.

EMR opted to deploy Motorola Moscad RTUs communicating with the SCADA central PCs via high power radio.

The initial success of the system lead quickly to the addition of a further 18 outstations and the upgrading of existing Moscad RTUs to provide full control of the pumping stations. The addition of local HMI screens with real-time process mimics and historical trending allowed field staff change pumping plans, adjust set-points and look at station performance without having to leave the pumping station. The addition of rainfall monitoring and Combined Storm Overflowmonitors integrated with the data from the Motorola RTUs to provide information on infiltration.

The upgrading of the control centre to include a web Access server proved to be a significant enhancement with out-of-hours alarms being investigated by staff from home to assess the most appropriate response. Maintenance contractors, management and regulatory bodies were given secure remote access via the web further expanding the use of the system without incurring significant additional cost. A comprehensive reporting package was installed to eliminate the requirement for caretakers keeping paper records regarding plant performance. This resulted in the timely generation of reports for management, maintenance and planning teams and provides an audit trail in the event of an incident. With the advent of mandatory reporting EU requirements this element of the system came into its own.

SDCC also has responsibility for maintaining and monitoring a now closed landfill site in Friarstown. When the on-site environmental monitoring system ceased to be reliable SDCC sought to expand EMR’s SCADA system to cover this area. In doing so SDCC realised that the versatility and reliability of the SCADA system could be used to address an long running problem. The accessibility of the information available on the SCADA system has facilitated a higher level of monitoring of gas discharges, leachate levels and flow rates and enhanced SDCC EPA reporting capability.