Water is our lifeblood. Without it humans can’t survive for very long. When gasoline prices go up, we grumble, but we’re willing to pay, because we demand our traveling freedom. Water flows into our homes and businesses every day, year in year out, and yet we take it for granted. We complain when the quarterly water bill hits the counter. But compared to gasoline, water is dirt cheap!

And what about the water we’ve used? Where does it go and how does it get there?

Wastewater (effluent) flow and control is an industry CTC is getting involved with in some very creative ways, thanks to CTC partner and industry expert Steve Brown of Advanced Automation Products of Florida.

Steve’s group immediately recognized the potential of CTC’s Blue Fusion line for the wastewater industry. This industry is constantly striving to find better ways to manage wastewater flow and better ways to present the data in a graphical manner for the municipalities charged with keeping everything flowing smoothly.

Not that long ago, the only way the Water Department knew if a lift station was having problems was via a dedicated phone line from each station back to headquarters. If a pump went down, headquarters received a five-volt signal on the line and would send a couple of guys to the site to check it out.

All monitoring and control was centralized. Today the trend is toward decentralized control, which provides the most flexibility, allowing customers to design systems to fit their own preferences. In this case, “decentralized” means that the functions reside on the local controller at the pump station or individual site.

Instead of using a PLC or proprietary RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit), each site uses a PAC (Programmable Automation Controller). Control Technology Corporation’s PAC, Blue Fusion, has both PC capabilities and PLC control functions. The PC capabilities include an internal web server, a data logger to record date/time-stamped events such as pump starts and stops, flow, and run times. Additionally it can send e-mail /pager alarms, transfer data to a PC or server, and offers other capabilities that are beyond those of traditional PLCs. In other words, the local controller at each site performs similar interface, data acquisition, and alarming functions to traditional SCADA and Web-hosted systems.

Furthermore, decentralized systems provide control functions both locally and remotely. CTC’s automation controllers effectively handle both simple and complex local control functions. They have built in web browsing capability to provide a graphical interface that remote users can access with a standard browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Firefox), which can be set up to provide status and data indication as well as performing remote control of equipment. The web interface can also be used for set up and troubleshooting.

So what's the big deal?
Using CTC’s Blue Fusion PACs along with radio transmitters, local water departments can troubleshoot from the comfort of their keyboards and favorite browsers, back at headquarters. They can use cellular communications to signal back to the main control station if there is a problem instead of paying for a dedicated phone line or constantly polling a remote station’s PLC, both more costly propositions.

Since the Blue Fusion can log data locally, there is a backup copy available in case of a disruption in communication channels — POMG (Peace of Mind Guarantee) for your data integrity.

New technicians can be up to speed quickly since they already have a strong working knowledge of how a browser works. They just need to learn the details of the data being presented within the browser. These are just some of the cost and time savings this technology offers your local water department.

So, we are embarking on a new journey into the world of wastewater process control with Advanced Automation Products as our guide. More information about the CTC’s Blue Fusion product family can be found at 5000 Series Automation Controllers.