Remote monitoring using the EnviroRanger has reduced
operating costs at the McGill Street pumping station by
30%.
The Town of Cobourg, Ontario,
has reduced operating costs at
its wastewater pumping station
by 30% after an upgrade
to the plant's monitoring and control
equipment.
The wastewater treatment system
features two pollution control plants
with a designed treatment capacity of
3.58 million gallons per day (MGD) at
plant one and 2.58 MGD at plant two,
plus five sewage pumping stations. The
McGill Street pumping station is the
largest, with a capacity of 4.6 MGD. It
is equipped with three constant speed
pumps and a magnetic flowmeter.
Before the plant upgrade, the McGill
station used a manual float system to
control the pumps. It required daily
servicing of floats, manual inspection,
and operation logging. A technician had
to drive to the station, manually check
the float operation, select the lead pump,
change the chart recorder paper, log the
pumped hours and the daily volume
pumped as measured
by a magnetic flowmeter,
and then bring
the log back to the office.
The technician
performed these tasks
every day.
Robert Landry,
Plant Superintendent,
spearheaded the introduction
of a remote
monitoring system for
the McGill station.
He chose Milltronics
measurement and
process instruments.
Automating the routine
tasks proved a
successful strategy
for improving efficiency
and reducing
costs.
The EnviroRanger
ERS 500, a new
monitoring and control
system, was installed.
Connected to
a Milltronics Echomax
XRS-5 transducer, the
EnviroRanger panel
mount control unit
provides accurate and
reliable level measurement. It is also
connected to the flowmeter to monitor
flow.
The installation eliminated the need
for daily on-site servicing. It automated
the information gathering, and all pump
control routines and sequencing setups.
EnviroRanger provides pump control,
data-logging, and communications functions.
It is integrated into the existing
SCADA system running Modbus RTU
through a telephone modem. From the
office at the main treatment plant, the
operator can now remotely track pump
run-time, pump faults, number of pump
starts, instantaneous flow rate from the
magnetic flowmeter, and totalized
pumped volume.
The new system has improved plant
operation and quality control by making
more data available for decisionmaking.
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