Our Case Studies
Previously, the city’s water department used an aging dial-out system with paging and analog voice calls to alert staff when its 12MGD wastewater plant equipment or one of 22 lift stations would go into alarm mode. That changed when they upgraded to a GE iFIX SCADA system along with SmartSights WIN-911 for in-app and SMS alerts.
The utilities department currently operates two manned shifts on weekdays, and one on weekends, with the late night hours being unmanned. In-plant alarms are routed to plant staff, lift station alarms go to lift station personnel, and a hodgepodge of miscellaneous alarms need to go out to a range of different people, depending on the alarm type and severity.
Kevin Buhmann, a Wastewater Electronic Technician for the city says that WIN-911’s flexible scheduling and escalation engine was a key to relieving overlap and confusion when it came to alarm response. “It works great for grouping alarms for both in-plant and off-site staff, and accommodating our changing shifts and schedules.”
“It’s (plug and play configuration) works great for many types of SCADA programs and is easy to set up.”
Kevin Buhmann
Wastewater Electronic Technician,
City of Carmel
Our Case Studies
Buhmann notes that the new system saves time and money because of improved efficiency in response, both during and after regular work hours. “Our response time has improved because we can let people know specifically what the alarm is and in what status condition. No one has to go to our monitoring computers to see the alarms and where they are at.”
As one of the people responsible for installing new IT systems and PLC programming, Buhmann knows how complexity in implementing automation projects can be a show-stopper. He pointed to WIN-911’s direct connects to leading SCADAs as a major advantage. “It’s (plug and play configuration) works great for many types of SCADA programs and is easy to set up.”
Our Case Studies
