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Case Study | Wastewater
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Lake Chelan Water District Increases Uptime

Control Systems NW helps the Lake Chelan Water District reduce downtime by upgrading their aging control and electrical systems

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Clayton Anderson is a project manager with RH2 Engineering (RH2) and its wholly owned subsidiary Control Systems NW (CSNW), which specializes in control system design and integration. Together the two companies’ licensed electricians and control systems specialists serve the water wastewater industry.

“We’ve been in the water wastewater business for about 45 years,” Clayton says. “We formed Control Systems NW to provide equipment, integration and startup services primarily designed around Rockwell Automation technologies.”

CSNW is a member of the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork™ and has been designated as a Water Wastewater Industry Recognized Systems Integrator. Firms that earn this badge are proven leaders in the sector.

“Being in the Pacific Northwest where water is so important to the economy, we have become irrigation experts, especially in upgrading aged equipment,” Clayton explains.

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Control Systems NW Upgrades Control for Lake Chelan Water District

Control Systems NW helps the Lake Chelan Water District reduce downtime by upgrading their aging control and electrical systems.

clayton anderson project manager rh2 engineering

Clayton Anderson
Project Manager, RH2 Engineering

Aging Control System and Equipment Issues

The Lake Chelan Reclamation District (the District), a long-time RH2 client, was struggling with an outdated control system and electrical equipment that was more than 40 years old. Based in Manson, Washington, the District has nine pumping plants.

“They had some big control system problems. Whenever they had small power bumps, they had to manually restart the system. It would take about six to eight hours,” Clayton says. “This an area with very expensive vineyards and fruit trees where a couple of hours without water could lead to costly crop and tree loss.”

Clayton’s team upgraded the District’s control system with Rockwell Automation CompactLogix™ 5370 Controllers and an improved radio communications network. The team also put a plan in place to avoid manual system restarts after a power bump.

“We used Studio 5000® programming to look at the whole system and restart pump stations without operator intervention,” Clayton explains. “That led to a decrease in operator overtime and more uptime for the customer.” In fact, within the first 2 years of the control system upgrade, the District’s overtime dropped by as much as 25%.

System and Equipment Upgrades Provides Numerous Benefits

Next, the team upgraded the aging electrical equipment with Rockwell Automation’s CENTERLINE® Medium Voltage (1500) and Low Voltage (2100) Motor Control Centers.

“We were able to pre-procure equipment through CNWS. Pre-procuring is a risk that a lot of municipalities want to avoid. So, we try to make it very low risk. Rockwell Automaton really stepped up to help,” Clayton says. “We were able to work directly with the factory to design and provide equipment on an accelerated schedule and partner with Rockwell’s local distributor to manage spare parts, make sure equipment arrives on time, and everything is seamless.”

Before the upgrades, staff had to check the plants daily. Now, upgraded plants require only a weekly check. The district has also been able to reallocate operations and maintenance funding from these plants to other assets.

Additionally, with the ability to record and access power monitoring data, the team was able to uncover patterns of high power bumps and production schemes that caused plant issues. With those insights, they were able to modify the utilities distribution system to further improved operations.   

Topics: Wastewater ControlLogix Motor Control Centers, Low Voltage Motor Control, Medium Voltage Drives & Motors Programmable Controllers
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