A-C Technology Solutions Engineers Results for Customers

A-C Technology Solutions and Rockwell team up to save the day at a California Sanitation District’s wastewater treatment facility.

Challenge

A wastewater treatment plant was in desperate need of a major overhaul: the motor control center was missing components and was in a state of disrepair, and the effluent pumps were extremely outdated.

Solution

Renovating and expanding the wastewater treatment plant with a new motor control center equipped with state-of-the art Rockwell technology including an effluent pump station with SCADA for a safer and more reliable, flexible, efficient solution.

Technical Highlights

Industry: Wastewater treatment and disposal

Service: Modifying and expanding a sanitation district’s motor control center

Technologies Used:

  • Redundant ControlLogix PAC’s
  • Allen Bradley Intellicenter Ethernet I/P (Smart) Motor Control Centers
  • Distributed RA FactoryTalk View SE HMI, Historian Database and Reporting

Description

Background

The client is a California town’s Sanitation District, which was formed by a public agency back in February 1971 by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors through authority granted in the County Sanitation Districts Act and the Health and Safety Code of the State of California. The purpose of this special district is to provide for the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater emanating from the residential, commercial, institutional and industrial dischargers within the service area.

The wastewater treatment and disposal facilities are located on a 550 acre site 1.5 miles west of town. Its operations, maintenance, laboratory and administration buildings along with the treatment process units cover 30 acres of land.

In 2009, the District developed a Capital Improvement Program. Since the headwork’s channels had not been resurfaced in over 30 years, it was in desperate need of a complete overhaul. In fact, the effluent pumps and motor control center (MCC) had come to the end of their useful life.

Process

The Sanitation District’s project scope included replacing the effluent pumps with new pumps, controls and VFD as well as replacing the MCC and creating a SCADA for the effluent pump station. They also needed to replace the process water pumps and place controls in the proposed headwork’s building, plus replace the wiring for the effluent pump’s station as well as for the clarifiers from the MCC and main lines.

The Sanitation District chose to work with Rockwell on this portion of the project, and Rockwell was very pleased to be able to highlight some of its newest technology for them, including The Allen Bradley Intellicenter Ethernet I/P (Smart) Motor Control Centers. Rockwell called on tits trusted partner, A-C Technology Solutions (A-C) to help write the specifications. A-C ended up taking on a much larger portion of the project, including developing the PAC Control Code for the Main Plant Redundant controllers and the HMI (GUI) along with the associated historical database; designing, installing and testing the Ethernet I/P network; implementing the use of the Smart MCC faceplates for advanced diagnostics; and commissioning all control and Network components and systems. A-C also set up the SCADA Servers and Engineering Workstation computers.

Results

The new motor control center is now safer than it ever was, well-protected from the elements, and includes a Smart MCC as well as preventative maintenance and wiring diagrams. The effluent pumps feature VFDs and self-cleaning strainers for plant water, which are much more reliable and efficient. And now that the pump stations contain a SCADA system, they’re fully integrated and feature reporting and trending, Vantage Point, a web‐based reporting package with completely customized reports and up-to-date data from Historian. This Smart MCC is actually one of the only placements in the entire country, making this wastewater plant a model in which to replicate. The FactoryTalk View SE application is the main HMI and SCADA system for the entire facility. This software and hardware provides control, monitoring, alarms, events and reporting for the overall wastewater treatment process and is the core of a fully integrated SCADA system. Without this HMI, the client would have no way of knowing the current status of its treatment system and whether it is operating properly. The SCADA system also provides a way to document the performance of their process and the adherence to regulatory requirements. This FTView SE application is so impressive, it has won awards from peer organizations.

Customer Quote:

“Thanks to A-C Technology Solutions and Rockwell, we now have a motor control center with improved safety and operational reliability. Plus it’s incredibly flexible and efficient. It’s no wonder we won ‘Plant of the Year’!”

 

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