Customer Case

Chalk River, Ontario

Water Treatment Plant SCADA System (Canada)

Customer Profile
The current plant, which used relay logic, had been in service for many years and only allowed for minimal plant control,
alarm and reporting. Essentially, the upgrade involved replacing three relay panels with one control panel containing the
main SCADAPack PLC.

The design also called for a complete instrumentation retrofit including chemical metering pumps, analysers, flow meters
and level transmitters. In addition, a new clarifier and filter would be added to allow for a backup filtering system should
one filter need to be taken out of service.

As an extra challenge the plant could not be shut down for extended periods, and thus a control system was needed that
would allow for seamless integration.

This system also required the flexibility of multiple communication protocols since communication within the plant was to
be over an Ethernet network, while existing leased lines to both the low lift pumping station and the elevated tank, dictated
that leased line modems be used.

Customer benefits
Using different communications protocols was not a problem and communication has been working reliably since the plant
was brought online. Interfacing with third party software and hardware has also been very reliable. The operator interface
used was the National Instruments Lookout SCADA software package. All reports, trends, and process information are
displayed on the operator computer, running Windows XP using this software. Process alarms were sent through a serial
connection to a RACO Manufacturing Verbatim autodialer.

Through the autodialer the operator could be alerted of any critical process alarms via a cell phone or pager. The biggest
challenge of the project was to ensure the integration of all instrumentation was as smooth as possible. Since the plant
had to continue to produce water daily the plant could not be shut down for extended periods of time. Therefore once
equipment was placed online it had to work.

The TelePACE programming software made it easy to troubleshoot and modify the ladder logic as needed to allow the
plant to work as intended. Programming changes could be made online which limited the effect on other systems (i.e.
starting/stopping pumps, opening/closing valves, etc.). In summary, the project was completed on schedule and the
decision to use the SCADAPack 32 proved to be ideal in terms of capital investment, ease of setup and reliability.

Implementation Methodology
The SCADAPack32 controller was chosen because it satisfied all the required criteria. It offers the same advanced
programming functions as other brands, uses standard Modbus addressing, and comes standard with five communication
ports. This communication flexibility was essential since the Ethernet port on the main PLC was used to communicate with
the two filter PLCs and with the SCADA interface through a hub. A serial port was needed to communicate, via a Bell 202
modem, with the low lift and elevated tank PLCs. Another serial port was needed for the Verbatim Autodialer, operator of
any alarms through a cell phone, while a third serial port was used for programming. With other controller brands, extra
communication modules would have had to be used, which would have increased the cost of the control system
significantly and would have made installation more complicated. With the SCADAPack32, communications setup with
each station proved to be straight forward.

The Ethernet network setup was as simple as assigning an IP address to each PLC on the network and polling each
station in turn. The leased line network only required dipswitch settings for baud rate and other communication
parameters, and software polling.

Solution overview

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