AWWA Conference Spring 2016

Three SCADA Technologies

That Won’t Break the Bank

Helix Water District

• 1885 Cuyamaca Water Company

• East County of San Diego

• 106 MGD WTP / Ozone

• 50 Site distribution system

• System storage of 68.5 MG

• 50 square miles

• 268,000 population

• 722 miles of pipeline

• Supply three other districts

• 3 Connections

• Up to 36 MGD

Helix’s SCADA Modernization• 1986 VAX , RTUs and phonelines

• 1996 – 1998 Wonderware TP / Dist

• 1998 to 2002 plant expansion

• 2002 – 2004 MCC PLC bricks project

• 2006 – 2007 Master Plan New Data Historian

• 2009 New SCADA Cluster

• 2010 Ignition SCADA and use of OPC-UA

• 2013 – 2014 Radio pilot project

• 2014 – 2015 Radio project phase one

• 2015 – 2016 Radio project phase two 3

Water Utilities Need Better Solutions

• The utility’s informational needs

• Stringent regulation

• Better summary reports

• Better historical storage

• Economic pressures

• Drought and conservation

• Fixed cost and rates

• Better business model on purchase

• One that doesn't age like legacy systems4

SCADA Technology is Expensive

• Designed, built and maintained by outside staff

• Some districts are moving to in house solutions

• Reducing the cost of ownership

– Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)

– Moore's law

– Open source

• Younger staff understands technology

• Less than 20 cent on the dollar solutions exist

– Solution moves the risks to in house staff

– Phased approach (learn and pay as you go)

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Conversation with a SCADA Designer

• Wonderware, AB PLC and Dell servers

– Vary any one and they ask “what are you doing?”

– Stable designs but they use very old technology

– Designer’s, not the utilities best interest

– May not be the most open, powerful or cost effective

• Understanding the long term cost of supporting a

system like this

• A paradigm shift may be a good thing

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Conversation with a SCADA Integrator

• Real world SCADA outside support person

• SCADA integrators need to make a profit

• Won’t recommend $99 PLC

• My programing fee = the PLC cost

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SCADA software $60K

IWR Radio $1,200

SLC504-L541 $3,920

1746 four Ch AI $1,340

1746 Gateway $5,091

RS500 Pro $4,190

InSQL $$,$$$

About 1/10th the Cost

SCADA software $6K

Radio $89 to $139

DL250 CPU $286

AI $83 to $207

MB Gateway $189

Free to $395

SQL Historian free

Money saved allows us to fix other issues

Helix Legacy Helix Now

http://www.1sourcedist.com

http://www.automationdirect.com 8

Three Parts of a SCADA System

• Central hardware and software

– Including data historian

• Communication network

– TP Ethernet cable and fiber

– Dist. wireless or radio

• Programmable Logic Controller

HWD PLC Infrastructure

• District PLC and radio 1998 – 1999

– Fifty Direct Logic 250 PLCs

• Plant upgrade 1998 – 2002

– Eleven Direct Logic 340 and 450 PLCs

– Now considered legacy PLCs

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Current Low Cost PLC Options

• Not from the big four

– AB, Schneider Electric, GE, or Siemens

– Not value based automaton providers

– Multinational companies

• Lower cost at the PLC level

– Redesigned CPUs

– Micro PLCs

– Stackable PLC

– PLC and HMI in one unit

Legacy Direct Logic 450 PLC

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Low Cost Do More Replacement

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3

PLC Replacement Side by Side

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Next Generation of IP Radios

• Designed for WISP market

• Easily interfaces to SCADA

• Higher power radio and high gain antennas

• Bandwidth supports video on demand

• Powerful, secure and very low cost

• Web page administration

• Power over Ethernet

• Several good vendors

• Radio cost $89 to $300

• Real throughput 30 to 100 Mbps

• Can view and edit ladder remotely

• 802.11 G/N/AC

• Antenna diversity

HWD Ethernet Radio Network

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Radio Configuration and Antenna

Alignment

Requires direct line of sight

Rifle Scope on T-Square = $200

Use of red balloon = $10

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Antenna Alignment Tool

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RF Armor Antenna Shield

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• Reduces unwanted

RF interference

• Increases throughput

HWD OSPF Mesh Network

2121

SCADA Technology Time and Money

• 1986 BBI VAX based $1.2M

• Full turn key system

• 1997 Wonderware $335K

• BBI tag-server issues (16/32 bit)

• Full system done in house

• 2007 IA SCADA total cost since ‘07 $47.2K

• Used AB and Modbus UA tag-server

• Open systems reduce investment losses

• Full system done in house

• Reused PLCs and radios (phased plan)22

Our New SCADA System

• Centrally administrated

• Web based (uses an Apache web server)

• Licensed by the server and not tags or clients

• High availability built in

• Cross platform

• Totally open database options

• Zero client software to install or license

• Open communications UA with DA support

• Lower lifecycle cost compared to other options23

NEW SCADA TECHNOLOGY

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Lakeside Water District

• Lowest water rates in San Diego county

• Very small district

• Resourceful

• Narrow radio re-banding causing issues

• Legacy Wonderware software

• Downtime in the system

• Radio proof of concept

– Three site plan

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Lakeside Water District

• Not line of site (used tank as a repeater)

• Lakeside staffing

– Distribution superintended

– Six Utility workers

• one with some electrical experience

Path Doesn’t Have Line of Site

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Lakeside Water District

• Work started Oct 2015 (two radio sites)

• Proven the radio links work

• SCADA communicating over the links

• Logging tank levels

• MySQL used as the data historian

• Converting HWD pump station screen

• Adding HOA contact blocks to the PS

• 11 sites with radios, 4 more in progress

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Questions?

Three SCADA Technologies

That Won’t Break the Bank

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