Smart operation in State Water project
71 major dam, weir and regulator sites across regional NSW will have remote operation and monitoring capabilities in the first stage of State Water Corporation’s $13.2 million integrated surveillance, monitoring and remote telemetry (iSMART) program.
The $3.8 million supervisory control and data access (SCADA) and network telemetry component of iSMART was recently launched at State Water’s Dubbo head office in central NSW.
State Water CEO George Warne was given an introduction to the system, and opened a weir at Hay in south-western NSW using iSMART via a secure wireless internet connection at the Dubbo launch.
State Water iSMART Project Manager Andrew Lavelle said the SCADA upgrade would provide the technological foundation for the entire program.
“iSMART is a jointly funded initiative of the NSW Government, Bureau of Meteorology and Water for Rivers which aims to reduce water losses and improve efficiency of water resource operations and asset management practices,” Mr Lavelle said.
“Aside from the SCADA upgrade, iSMART also includes new surveillance monitoring systems and upgrades to water delivery control systems such as storage release valves and weir gates.”
The development of a more robust and reliable communications infrastructure across the organisation will also eventually eliminate the need for manual operations requiring staff to travel to operate and maintain assets.
“With an operating footprint the size of NSW, we needed to develop a centralised, integrated system enabling remote monitoring, operation and control of our assets,” Mr Lavelle said.
The project includes all of State Water’s operating structures from the Queensland border down to Hume Dam on the Victorian border, and as far west as Menindee Lakes on the Darling River.
The application of new SCADA technologies will provide a ‘view anywhere’ strategy for water delivery and asset management which will assist State Water to improve service delivery and become a ‘digital firm’.
“This project will allow near real-time operation of remote and complex control systems, improving water delivery to users and the environment to meet quantity, timing and quality requirements.
“The resultant water savings can be reassigned to the priorities of other water saving initiatives,” he said.
SAGE Automation won the contract to develop the centralised SCADA system.
The surveillance monitoring strategic initiative will enable remote monitoring, alarming, logging and trending of surveillance data and will be operational by March 2011 for priority sites.
“By integrating dam surveillance using telemetry and instrumentation, our dam safety group can remotely view the dams, monitor each asset and analyse the data in real time,” Mr Lavelle said.
“Removing routine tasks which can be done with instrumentation and technology will make people’s working lives easier, more productive and more satisfying.”
Media contact: Jane Urquhart (02) 6841 2087 or 0429 449 711
