IIoT as a Utility Management Tool

摘要

The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) has thousands of rotating assets contributing toward meeting process treatment goals at the 384-MGD Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, DC. In addition to the 384 MGD advanced treatment plant, the site also accommodates a 250 MGD Tunnel Dewatering Pump Station and Wet Weather Treatment Facility complete with Fine Screens, Grit Removal, Ballasted Settling, Disinfection and Dechlorination. The plant has over 50,000 hard IO connected to the control system, and approximately 450,000 soft IO. The plant morphed from a full manual operation with 250 operating staff, to a plant that is now fully controlled with a Distributed Control System (DCS) and with significantly reduced manpower. The change was large and driven by the need to be able to operate without reliance on a large work force. The control philosophy adopted at the time of design had this singular focus and was therefore geared towards automating routine manual tasks. This included equipment start/stop, and flow and speed set point control. The only stated cost optimization goal was chemical usage, by converting from a set manual dose to flow paced. Electrical power monitoring was an expensive option and therefore restricted to motors 100 HP or larger size.