Description

Background

In order to receive approval to develop raw land and ultimately build homes in California, developers are required to construct—among other improvements—a working water distribution system that will properly supply potable water to new homes as well as provide adequate pressure to a life safety fire hydrant water distribution system. Once the infrastructure has been completed and accepted by the County, the County then assumes responsibility and ongoing maintenance of the distribution system.

The County had been responsible for maintaining one particular site in California’s Central Valley for several years, but hadn’t run into any problems until the developer (who has been building homes in the area since 1977) began to plan a new expansion to build homes in a higher elevation. This posed a problem with the original water distribution solution right from the start: since this system was a “packaged” water distribution solution, it was unable to accommodate the new variables needed for proposed homes on the hill, such as maintaining pressure at elevations higher than the tanks. Once the County became aware that the developer could not get the current water system to work at a home they were building that was uphill from the water tank, they immediately called A-C Technology Solutions (A-C), with whom it had a history of reliable performance for over 18 years. A-C had solved numerous issues for the County in the past, and felt confident that it would succeed once again.

Process

The County explained that it needed a solution which would run the water pump at the required speed, maintain a constant pressure, then would automatically shut off when there was no flow, and A-C Technology Solutions got to work right away. Upon initial analysis, the A-C team discovered that the water system’s hardware – installed about 7 years prior – was already obsolete: there was an existing Human Machine Interface (HMI) with two processors (one to fill the tank, and one to draw water out of the tank.) In order to upgrade the existing system as well as to make the new system work properly, the team implemented a state-of-the-art HMI and Allen Bradley Rockwell Automation PLC hardware platform. A-C cleverly set about writing new code that recognized the variables and challenges this project site presented, such as variable pump speeds to accommodate fluctuating pressure due to both high usage and gravity issues. Not only did this unique, creative solution stabilize water pressure for the uphill development expansion, it proved to be scalable as well, so it will be able to handle future add-ons and changes without additional automation hardware.

Results

The County was pleased once again with A-C Technology Solution’s customized solution, and the housing developer was able to move forward with construction now that water was flowing freely to its hilltop homes.

Customer Quote:

“This time, we learned the hard way that it’s crucial to hire the right consultant from the get-go…if A-C Technical Solutions planned the initial layout for this neighborhood’s water supply, we wouldn’t have had to go back and fix mistakes that were initially made. We’re thankful, though, that A-C was able to create a long-lasting solution with built-in value.”