Amanziwethu Services, Harrismith has switched to an Adroit scada HMI. No longer satisfied with having to pay monthly licensing fees, yearly renewals and upgrades in an ever-escalating US dollar, the organisation decided to switch to the software of local developer of advanced scada systems, Adroit Technologies.
Maluti, a Phofung Municipality has recently entered into a ground breaking, three-year public-to-public venture with Rand Water forming an autonomous business unit called Amanziwethu Services. This is the first partnership of its kind in the country, with surplus funds being ploughed back into the water and sanitation services to ensure continued sustainable growth.
The standard Adroit trending tool was critical to the success of the project. By monitoring the chemical dosages, Amanziwethu Services is able to automatically control the usage of this costly component. Chemical expenses are tabulated in conjunction with the number of kilolitres of water measured by the flow recorders in order to calculate the cost of the water, which is displayed in an Excel spreadsheet to give a straight costing.
Chemical dosing plays a large role in expensive consumption control at the Wilge Water Treatment Works. The Adroit scada monitors the pH levels in the waterworks indicating the amount of lime to be added as well as ensuring that the correct amount of chlorine is supplemented to ensure that the water is effectively disinfected.
Aluminium dosing is another critical plant operation that is monitored and controlled by the scada. Turbidity meters in the water control the chemical dosing pumps via the Adroit system, which increases the aluminium dosing as water turbidity increases. The aluminium creates a flocculent to purify unclean water, the rate of which can often increase unexpectedly overnight due to rains, dry weather patterns or other events.
The scada provides an additional viewpoint for the plant's managers. It is linked to the main server in the office, which allows them to access the plant's total control systems remotely and correct faults via a laptop from virtually any location. This functionality has resulted in faster reaction times to costly faults, especially those emanating outside of regular working hours. Reports are drawn daily in Excel format from the system containing both data acquired by the Adroit HMI and manual inputs from plant staff for financial as well as operations management.
The reservoir mimics are also linked to the scada giving a visual representation and a percentage reading on all reservoir levels. Trending functionality allows the plant managers to monitor and trend overnight filling, water demand and other critical supply determinants.
The Adroit also monitors and controls the filter backwash sequence at the main waterworks for optimal maintenance and in the event of failure. Sequence failure or faulty historical trending and data of backwashing activity can result in costly and time-consuming over-backwashing.
The plant's seven scada stations are linked via an OPC, installed by system integrator SSE. In anticipation of a dedicated telephone line, the water plant connects to the offices where it resides on a dedicated machine via Internet, using PC Anywhere. Once a landline is connected, the Adroit will become an extension on the server.
Mimics were developed using the Adroit software, and tailored to Amanziwethu Services' specifications by including digital photographs of plant machinery to customise and personalise the graphics. Plant superintendent, Paul Rose comments, "The system had to be user-friendly and intuitive for the plant operators."
As finances allow, the Amanziwethu Services operation intends to expand the scada system to include the wastewater treatment plant by adding three additional Adroit tools to regulate the plant effectively and ensure that it meets effluent standards.
Expansion plans also include extending the current audible and on-screen alarming to include SMS warning, further enhancing the remote functionality of plant operations. Additionally, Amanziwethu Services intends to implement a built-in maintenance scheduler to streamline the plant and bring it in line with world best practices, thus optimising its maintenance budgets.
Adroit Technologies is an early adopter of the Proudly South African logo. As a local technology developer, it is able to offer Amanziwethu Services cost effective, world-class products. The developers of the scada also form part of the Adroit support team and are on-hand to provide superior insight into the product and its applications.
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| www: | www.adroit.co.za |
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