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Frostburg Water Treatment Plant SCADA and Process Control System

FEC's industrial system integration experience helped the City of Frostburg develop a SCADA and process control system for their water treatment plantCustomer:
The City of Frostburg Maryland

Engineer:
Whitman, Requardt and Associates, LLP
Baltimore, MD

General Contractor:
Penta Corporation

Project Size:
$350,000.00

Click here to review SCADA Master Plan Configuration

Process Description
The City of Frostburg's new $7.4 million, 3 million gallons per day (mgd) water treatment plant replaces an aged facility that was constructed in 1932. The treatment plant design is based on state of the art chemical coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation followed by high rate gravity filtration. Treatability was performed prior to design which determined treatment criteria for the two existing raw water sources (Piney Creek Reservoir and Savage well/spring system) and assessed the ability of the new plant to meet future water quality requirements of MDE and the USEPA Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments.

The following facilities are included in the design of the 3 mgd water treatment facility:

  • Two rapid mixing chambers
  • Two four-stage flocculation basins
  • Four gravity filters
  • Bulk chemical storage and feed facilities
  • Polymer feed systems
  • Residual thickening and drying facilities
  • Chlorine storage and feed facilities

Project Description
Along with a contract to be the projects system integrator, FEC was given the challenge by the owner and their engineer to significantly reduce the control system cost.

This was accomplished via an FEC proposed SCADA system which incorporated:

  • A central personal computer (PC) connected to a Main Control Panel (MCP) in the central control unit. This computer provides Human Machine Interface (HMI) for monitoring the system and changing control parameters. Communication from PC to MCP is via Modbus+.
  • A second HMI PC, also located in the control room, is used for dial-up interfacing, additional monitoring and report printing.
  • Two printers are provided for alarm logging and report generation.
  • The MCP communicates to three remote sites via leased phone lines and, in one case, fiber optics.

Process control of the filter system was provided by a PLC in the Filter Control Console (FCC) which communicates to the MCP via Modbus+. Four (4) filters are controlled via an automatic backwash program.

A finished water RTU (FW) monitors the output flow and finished water parameters.

System Components

  • Two (2) Control room PC’s utilizing Wonderware Intouch
  • Two (2) Modicon Quantum PLC’s
  • One (1) Modicon Micro PLC
  • One (1) Control Microsystems VS/3 Modem in the Savage Creek RTU
  • One (1) Modicon Quantum PLC in the Piney Creek RTU.
  • Windows NT Network
On Time, On Spec, Within Budget

Developed by Telesian Technology Inc.