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November 1, 2007
Investment in SCADA Offers Quick Return, Public Power Magazine, November-December 2007
| For More Information |
Tim Blodgett
Hometown Connections
303-526-4515
tblodgett@hometownconnections.com
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Automated, Real-Time Monitorng and Control
To improve access to historical and real-time data from its distribution system, College Station Utilities in Texas converted to a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system offered by Survalent Technology. CSU is among the growing list of American Public Power Association members working with Survalent to replace existing SCADA systems or to invest in SCADA for the first time.
Survalent Technology’s SCADA systems provide automated, real-time monitoring and control of facilities for publicly owned electric, water and gas utilities. APPA members may purchase Survalent Technology equipment, software and services at national group pricing arranged by Hometown Connections.
“The Survalent system reduces our dependency on proprietary solutions because it’s compatible with the communications protocol of our old system and because most of the SCADA master system is built on open source, off-the-shelf hardware and software,” said David M. Roye, CSU SCADA analyst. “We were able to choose a system capable of ‘talking’ correctly with our legacy field equipment and substation components and seamlessly integrate the old with the new. The ability to service or replace any failing piece of equipment makes my job much easier. In addition, because Survalent shares a common background with our previous vendor, it was easy for our operators to convert to the new system.
“Furthermore, when one of our managers asks me for specific data to illustrate a concept or operational failure or variation, the Survalent system makes it very easy to reach into the database and retrieve the exact information the manager requested. The tools provided by Survalent to extract this data also allow me to easily incorporate the data into industry standard applications such as Excel or Visio. I can use the features in these common applications to format the data in meaningful ways.”
Increasing industry security requirements also drove CSU’s switch to the Survalent system. “Using industry standard hardware and control software gives us the luxury of choosing the best security applications and hardware for our particular situation while utilizing standard security practices and protocols. We are not bound by proprietary limitations to a single predefined approach,” Roye said.
CSU’s Survalent applications include:
• The Worldview graphical user interface and WebSurv for access to the Worldview map;
• The SCADA Explorer editors for system configuration and resource management;
• Data Exchange, for spooling out data for ERCOT;
• SCADA Add-in, allowing users to directly query the database while in Excel;
• IED Wizard, using templates to program intelligent electronic devices;
• MultiSpeak to pass SCADA data to the Milsoft mapping program; and
• Archiver, for historical data storage.
“With the Survalent system, my development time is much faster,” Roye said. “Need a new graphic? Cut and paste from an existing one, reassign the points with a few mouse clicks, update Worldview and I’m done. Need a new graph? Open a blank graph, click on the points I want to graph, format the graph, update the host server and I’m done. I’m also impressed with how easy it is to maintain and administer the database. The tools provided by Survalent allow me so much more control. I can easily get to the information I need to visualize a problem area or compare data points.”
For a small community, the town of Bremen, Ind., has a large industrial base. Several businesses operate 24/7, and power interruptions cause major problems. A blip of the lights can cost these utility customers tens of thousands of dollars. As a result, the Bremen Electric Department decided to invest in a SCADA system to alleviate these outages. “Even if we eliminate only one outage per year, it would be worth the investment,” said Superintendent Tim Montague. “We selected Survalent because they offered the lowest bid and because the cities of Mishawaka and Lebanon, Ind., highly recommend the Survalent system.”
The Bremen Electric Department worked with HD Supply and Survalent to upgrade its substations and is using its new SCADA system to operate and monitor the substations. The department is also using Survalent’s paging system to notify employees of trouble spots or failures. “Our response times have decreased substantially,” Montague said. “We usually know of a breaker tripping or a transmission outage before the first call comes in.”
For its first investment in SCADA, the Bolivar Energy Authority in Tennessee was eager to install a system that is state of the art and yet user-friendly for operation and data management. They also wanted to work with a SCADA vendor that rated highly in technical support. They found Survalent Technology meets these requirements and more. “As a municipal utility, BEA must go through a competitive bid process,” said Randy Plunk, manager, engineering & operations. “Along with being the low bidder, Survalent met or exceeded all of our specifications. The sterling reputation of Survalent’s technical support group and the company’s growing municipal customer base were also huge advantages. Plus, the Hometown Connections representative in our area is Bill Moss. We have known Bill for more than 20 years and have worked with Bill and Hometown Connections to obtain other products and services.”
BEA is using the Survalent system to respond more quickly to outage calls, monitor power supply voltage, and monitor system loading. Plunk reported, “Outage response time has been reduced, and we are able to monitor our system loading a little more closely—namely the time of day on our peak loading. This could help us provide peak shaving in the future.”
Visit these web sites for more information.
• Survalent Technology
• Hometown Connections
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