00:07
>>Alexi Beck Gray: Most of us take for granted that
when we turn on a faucet, fresh and safe drinking
00:11
water will come out. But where does that water
come from? And how does it get to our taps?
00:16
And when it goes down the
drain, where does it go?
00:18
Hi, Alexi here from Opto 22. I'm here today
in Waterford, Michigan, to get some answers
00:24
to these questions. The Waterford Township
Department of Public Works has invited us
00:28
here to show us how they treat and transport
water to its over 74,000 residents.
00:34
It's a highly automated system with advanced monitoring
capabilities. In fact, it's got more technology
00:39
than I've ever seen in a water and sewer
district. So let's go take a look.
00:59
I am sitting here with Terry Biederman from
Waterford Township's Department of Public Works.
01:03
Terry, can you tell us a little
bit about yourself?
01:06
>>Terry: Well, I'm the director of Public Works
for Waterford Township. It's a community
01:10
that's about 35 miles northwest of Detroit.
It's in Oakland County and we're responsible
01:14
for 11 water treatment plants and we produce
our own water. It comes from ground water
01:18
and we treat it and pump it into the distribution
system where we have elevated tanks. Sewer-wise,
01:23
we've got 62 sewer pumping stations, 350 miles of
sewer main, and 360 miles or so of water main.
01:28
>>Alexi: Very cool. You've got quite an
elaborate alarming system. How many alarms
01:32
do you have and what happens with those alarms?
01:35
>>Terry: We alarm on over 1200 different events
because none of our facilities, water or
01:39
wastewater facilities, are manned 24 hours
a day. For example, we've got a program
01:44
in our control scheme using, you know, Opto 22.
Basically, when an operator walks into a plant,
01:49
a dialog box will pop up on a screen and they've
got to enter their password within 60 seconds.
01:54
If they don't enter a password within 60
seconds and that water plant is running,
01:58
the program will shut that plant down. We actually
de-energize the motor control center and then
02:01
our people will get e-mail notifications telling
us that we've got an unacknowledged intrusion
02:06
and that the pumps have been locked out so
that they can respond accordingly.
02:10
All of our facilities have got ingress/egress
monitoring and it's all done through the Opto
02:14
equipment as well. If the door opens, our people,
you know, it'll get beamed back through the radio system,
02:20
which then gets into the SCADA system
and the alarming package. It tells us what
02:24
facility it is and what type of ingress/egress
it is, whether it is an internal motion detector
02:28
that got tripped, or whether it was a door
alarm. So we know at all times who's coming
02:33
and going in the various facilities. We are
currently using Opto 22 for everything in
02:37
control and automation. When I came here as
a director in 1996, I wrote specifications
02:42
for a whole new SCADA system and it was
centered around the Opto application.
02:46
>>Alexi: Wow, it's amazing! I understand
you get calls from all over North America
02:50
from other municipalities interested in what
you're doing here in Waterford. What is it about
02:55
your water and sewer systems
that make it so unique?
02:58
>>Terry: Basically, I think where people see
us a little differently than most other places
03:03
is the way everything is integrated together.
It's not one application. It's not SCADA's
03:09
over here by itself, you know, or computer maintenance
management's over here by itself, or document
03:13
management's over here by itself. Everything
is integrated within one application. Our
03:18
GIS application integrates document management,
water modeling, sewer modeling. They never
03:24
have to leave that environment. They can go
in, they can create work orders in that environment,
03:29
they can search on work orders in that environment,
they can bring up customer files in that environment.
03:34
So we can respond very quickly to our customers'
needs and we can give them accurate information
03:38
a lot quicker than other communities can.
We've also incorporated a broadband wireless
03:43
network, which means our people basically are
mobile and they've got the same bandwidth
03:48
that they would literally have sitting at
the desk in their office in the field.
03:51
>>Alexi: You also do things like monitoring pumps,
how often they're turning on. Why do you do that?
03:55
>>Terry: Well, we monitor pumps on both water
and wastewater. We monitor obviously if
04:00
the pumps are running, power failures,
station flooding conditions, communication
04:04
failures, and all kinds of things. But more
on the wastewater side, our sewer lift stations,
04:08
because what we're doing is, every day,
we reset them all at midnight. And what we're
04:13
looking for is to make sure the pumps
are alternating the way they're supposed to.
04:17
And we look at the runtimes to make sure
that the runtimes for each one are consistent
04:21
with each other. For instance, if we've got a station
that's got one pump that is double the runtime as the other
04:27
pump, we know that we've got a pump there that's probably
either ragged up, or needs some type of maintenance put on it,
04:31
or really it could have a bad impeller, or whatever.
Once again, it's proactive for us to go and take
04:39
care of that, as opposed to reactive. You
know you've got a pump that is running
04:42
twice as long as the other one,
well, that's a waste of energy.
04:45
>>Alexi: You've seen energy
savings from that as well?
04:48
>>Terry: Absolutely, we've actually seen,
probably pretty substantial energy savings.
04:52
Keeping in mind that our system has grown
from where in 1996, we could only produce
04:55
14 million gallons of water a day, today we
are producing almost 30 million gallons of
04:59
water a day. And then of course, the energy
costs have increased, probably doubled since
05:04
then. So for it to only go up $60,000 USD
over 12 years with that kind of an increase,
05:08
and that's due to everything from control
systems, to monitoring, to putting in variable
05:13
frequency drives, you know a lot of energy
management stuff. It's also saved us a tremendous
05:18
amount of overtime because the system is really
automated. What we are really doing is programming
05:23
in a lot of our institutional knowledge, into
the processes of these facilities so that
05:28
the programs themselves take care
of a lot of these things.
05:30
>>Alexi: Even though you're not a programmer,
you like to play around with the software.
05:33
What do you like about it?
05:34
>>Terry: I love the flowchart programming.
I mean, that's the way I learned to program as an
05:39
engineer, and it's very basic as opposed
to say, ladder logic, which by the way,
05:44
I can't believe anybody uses anymore [Alexi
laughs]. But you know, you can make it as
05:47
complicated as you want, but at its core,
it's very basic. You know, you ask a question:
05:51
Is a wet-well level greater than or equal to this
level? And there are only two things can happen:
05:55
it's either yes or no. Yes, you're going to
do this, no you're going to do that. And then
05:59
you just kind of cascade that through it.
It's the way I think, basically.
06:01
>>Alexi: So what were some of the key features
that made Opto 22 such a good fit for your
06:06
application and your needs?
06:07
>>Terry: Well, it's PC-based, the cost is
less, it's more open architecture than really
06:14
most other applications that I've played
with. I've used Motorola systems, I've
06:18
use Square D systems, I've used Fisher Bailey
systems, I've used Allen-Bradley systems,
06:22
and I really like Opto's flexibility. I
like their backward-compatible philosophy.
06:29
I've got stuff that's been there 12 years.
They all talk, they all work, they're very
06:33
reliable and so yes, my overall satisfaction
is that I am very happy with it.
06:37
>>Alexi: Right. Thanks for talking with us
Terry. And thank you for watching the video.
06:41
For more information about this application,
visit opto22.com. See you next time.