Welcome to HighTideTechnologies, Rx
About now, most of us have symptoms of that delightful disease -- spring fever. If you are associated with the water and wastewater industries, you may also be thinking about special seasonal needs. For example, many municipalities use this time to flush hydrants, a task that pulls a significant amount of water from the system.
Additionally, you may be located in a place where spring rains and melting snows dump water into utility systems. Along with this extra flow comes a higher number of contaminants, which are leeched from thawing soil. You may also be planning ahead for summer, when low rainfall and the demands of agricultural irrigation may drain your water reserves.
With so much to think about, you don't need to worry about monitoring and control of your systems, as well. During spring, as in all seasons, High Tide Technologies and our network of distributors stands ready to meet your SCADA needs. Let our reliable products and service put your mind at ease.
In this season's newsletter, you will learn how to use trend graphs for system analysis. You will also read a case study describing how satellite SCADA telemetry solutions open up new monitoring and control possiblities for utilties with sites in rugged terrain or isolated areas. You will also find out about the latest happenings at High Tide Technologies.
Happy Spring from Joe and Dave!
Telemetry Tip: Using Trend Graphs for System Analysis. Tips: TelemetryVIEW Update
Your TelemetryVIEW web interface offers menu choices that allow you to view trend graphs of your assets. These graphs can be key to monitoring the long-term health of your system.
For example, tank history graphs show you how rapidly your tanks rise and fall. This data may alert you to leaks or pumping problems. Similarly, you may be able to detect leaks by examining the midnight usage rates from meter graphs that provide hourly profiles.
The start and runtime trends for sewer lift stations are particularly useful for determining if certain pumps need service. If you have an alternating duplex lift station, and you see that the pumps do not have the same number of starts each day you may be encountering a problem with your control system. If the runtimes are not the same for the two pumps, there may be concerns with pump efficiency.
If you so choose, TelemetryVIEW can automatically create Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that highlight some of these issues. If you need more trend information, don't hesitate to call one of our support staff. Our 800 numnber is located in the Help Tab of your TelemetryVIEW menu.
Case Study: Appalachia, Virginia
Is your utility in a rural or mountainous area? If so, you will be able to relate to the town of Appalachia,which needed a new solution for the local water treatment and distribution system. Appalachia's system consists of eleven tanks and two booster stations, all of which are deep in mountainous country.
Distributor C. L. Boggs worked with High Tide Technologies to provide Applachia with High-Tide's satellite-based products and services. Now, like all High Tide customers, Appalachia employees can keep track of their sites at any time from any Internet-connected computer.
According to Operator Jack Pitts, "We used to have a phone-based system, which quit working at some point."
Operator Mark Quillin adds, "With our previous tone (phone-based) system, we had problems keeping a connection. With the HTT system, connection difficulties have been reduced to a minimum. Also, being able to view the tanks and pumps from any location through the Internet has been a big plus. High Tide has saved us a tremendous amount of time. Previously, we were driving to each pump house to cut on the pumps manually. Also, each day, members of our crew would drive to each tank to check the levels."
Pitts comments, "Our tanks are spread out so far. We used to have to drive around and look at them all." Occasionally, Appalachia employees would arrive on a scene well after a leak had progressed and the tanks had run dry. Says Pitts, "Now, we can tell from the data if we have a leak. If we do, I can call a unit to go out and fix it before it becomes a problem."
Quillan agrees. "Now, leaks are discovered early, and over- and under- filling of tanks has been eliminated. Water is being saved. With the rising cost of gas, we are saving money by not having to drive to tanks to check them manually."
Many utilties find traditional SCADA solutions to be too costly or too impractical. For example, radio SCADA systems require a large number of repeater towers to move a signal through hills. It can be prohibitively expensive to buy or rent land for these towers, as well as to erect and mainain them.By contrast, High Tide's field units "look" directly up to a LEO (Low Earth Orbit) network of satellites. This allows for direct, two-way communication between the field unit and High Tide's servers. Thus, High Tide's solution eliminates the need for repeater towers. Similarly, it is costly to run phone lines to remote sites. As Appalachia found out, phone-based systems aren't always reliable in certain conditions. Solutions that are based on cell phone coverage simply do not work for areas that are out of range of cell towers. There are few places on the globe that are beyond the reach of an LEO satellite network. This means that almost any water or wastewater system can now obtain affordable, reliable SCADA technology.
High Tide's commitment to service is another boon for rural utilities. Quillan says, "We have been overjoyed with the HTT's service and support from installation to taking care of the few problems that have come about. Dave and HTT have done an excelletn job of answering any qaauestions we have hadd and ahve worked with us to make the system suit our needs."
If you would like to learn more, you can view the screen shot of Appalachia.
http://www.httscada.com/wwvud
