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No Strings Attached

The Village of Romeoville, located 30 minutes southwest of Chicago, has undergone unprecedented growth in the last five years due to new home construction, commercial construction and economic development opportunities. According to Romeoville Mayor Fred Dewald, the population is expected to increase further as new homes are built and opportunities exist.

As Romeoville continues to grow and expand, so do the number of wells, lift stations, pump stations and wastewater treatment plants. Currently, there are twelve wells, three ump stations, nineteen sanitary lifts; over 100 miles of water mains and sanitary sewers supplying an increasing population of people. The twelve wells distribute an average of four million gallons of water daily and have the ability to output seven million gallons into three elevated and four ground storage facilities, with a total capacity of five million gallons. Two wastewater treatment plants have the ability to process an average of six million gallons of wastewater daily. The demand of monitoring these vital facilities and the increasing distance between them forced Romeoville to take a hard look at their current SCADA system. The issues that required attention were consistent service, reliability, overall security, data speed and promptness of installation.

At the time of installation, Romeoville’s SCADA system was state-of-the-art. The system communicated via telephone lines leased from the local service provider. For a monthly fee, Romeoville used these lines to transmit data from a site location to a main computer located in the public works office.

All too often there were more problems with leased lines than benefits. They were frequently dug up during construction projects, prone to vandalism, affected by weather, subject to failures because of outdated provider equipment and even cut by lawnmowers, leaving no communication means. Other concerns included loss of communication due to storm situations and an ever-increasing concern about security.

But the bottom line was that the overall communication performance was slow and unimpressive. Using dial-up modems on a low grade DSO phone line, information was sent slowly to the central computer in the public works office. Not only were several attempts needed to make the connection, if made at all, but the information could not be considered real-time. This left open the possibility of an untimely service response.

Given all these problems, Romeoville decided to make a change. Water Department Superintendent Chris Drey contacted Metropolitan Industries, Inc., the original provider, to devise a solution for the current SCADA system’s communications problems. Reliability, speed, security, ease of integration and economics were issues important to Drey. Keith Girup, municipal south manager at Metropolitan Industries, presented Wireless SCADA to Public Works Director, Dan Bromberek.

Fairly new to SCADA communications, the technology is a simple wat of securely connecting hundreds of locations with a minimal installation effort. It uses wireless data modems that take advantage of the existing Internet and cellular tower networks to join systems that could be thousands of miles apart. It also allows for external Internet connections for remote access via personal computers as well as other Internet-enabled devices, making possible such timesaving methods as email reports, over-the-Internet control and mobile data collection. Drey was impressed with the technology, and, after conferring with Dan, ordered the first stage of a total system upgrade.

Wireless SCADA is one of the most reliable communication means on the market today. Using a state-of-the-art programmable logic controller, or PLC, the master site modem calls to the five upgraded sites in Romeoville every few seconds and talks to them, gathering information. The information collected is wirelessly transmitted from cell towers back to the master wireless SCADA modem where it is processed and reviewed. Battery back-up systems, installed in the event of a power outage, completed each installation. Surge arrestors were also provided to protect the system from lightning strikes. In the event that a cellular tower goes out of service, the wireless SCADA modem is smart enough to search for another cellular tower so users do not experience any down time.

The advanced features of the system lie within the programming system software. Developed and installed by Metropolitan, the software provides users with options never available with other SCADA communications. Up-to-the-second information can be viewed anywhere internet access is available. Romeoville can communicate with the system via telephone to receive voice-automated updates and/or adjust system settings on the go. Other features include the ability to receive emergency alarm alerts via personal cellular phones, pagers, PDAs and even a master supervisor’s phone located in his or her residence. After normal operating hours, the server will automatically call the current “on-call” operator at home or on a cell phone and speak any current alarms.

Since September 11, providing added security to water infrastructure has been a hot issue in water departments across the country. The ability for terrorists to sabotage a water system is a concern that is being dealt with. This new unexplored periphery of security will force municipalities to make important decisions in the future.

Wireless SCADA modems reduce the potential risk of a terrorist attack. Each modem is individually programmed, allowing only specific users to information. Users are prompted to log on with a user name and password. And even then, the user may only have access to certain information. It is at the master controller’s discretion as to which operator has access to what information. Passwords can be changed hourly along with user names if need be. Transmissions cannot be easily intercepted or hacked because they are encrypted using standard encryption methods.

Other security measures have been built into the system as well. With a few mouse clicks you can add redundant computers that will automatically take over operation if the primary computer fails. This inherent reliability makes running unattended operations secure and practical. If a computer is off-line or a new computer is added to the system, the software automatically synchronizes the system configuration, live and historical data and alarms. In the event of a total power loss, the computers are configured so that the system will restart automatically and begin full operation without any user intervention once power is restored.

Since the completion of the five upgraded sites, Romeoville has not experienced any notable downtime. The overall improvements and system performance of the wireless SCADA system compared to the previous leased line system has convinced Romeoville to upgrade all remaining sites in the next two years.

According to Romeoville Public Works Director Bromberek, the ability of Romeoville to provide continuous, dependable service to customers is an important factor of the wireless SCADA upgrade. “The goal of my public works department is reliable service for the citizens of Romeoville. The fact that we are committed to providing this service through wireless SCADA upgrades shows that citizens and service are the first priority,” said Bromberek.

The new access to information has allowed Romeoville the ability to precisely diagnose a situation and ultimately allocate the appropriate resources necessary. For example, on any given alarm situation, Romeoville will know the exact problem and can send the best-suited person for the job to solve it. This reduces operation costs and manpower saving the Village of Romeoville money. The consistency of wireless SCADA service and the ongoing ability to see in real-time how each system is operating without interruption has greatly reduced the amount of problematic failures. This was a significant issue since Romeoville’s goal is to provide consistent service to their customers.

Working one on one with the Village of Romeoville, Metropolitan Industries was able to evaluate the Village’s current system, and design a solution based on that analysis. The end result is a SCADA system that Romeoville is satisfied and happy with an on-going relationship that serves both parties.

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