Success Stories

SCADA Interface

The nation’s largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded water company, providing water and wastewater services to approximately 2.8 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Maine, Missouri, New York and South Carolina, had several small water production facilities located 200 miles or more from the larger operations facility. This operations facility had management and monitoring responsibilities but the daily operations and maintenance was still handled on a local level at the remote facilities. These facilities’ monitoring information had to be viewable at multiple locations by multiple personnel. The company had an existing SCADA system and were able to consolidate the information but needed to distribute it. Because their SCADA system, like many SCADA products, did not support web based viewing and configuration very well, they simply did not want to expose their system to the internet by opening portals through their network security firewall.

The company contacted Data-Command for help in providing a solution. The Data-Command OPC SCADA interface software was installed on the plant’s SCADA computer. Once installed the software began sending information from the local SCADA system to Data-Command’s data centers. The client themselves easily configured their web displays, validated their information, and set up notification and alert schedules, along with system trend charts.

Since Data-Command’s OPC SCADA interface software works behind a firewall with no open incoming ports, the SCADA system is not exposed to the internet and through Data-Command’s web portal, company management was instantly able to view real-time and historical information, as well as system trends. Also, the company was able to easily set up alert parameters in order to receive notifications any time system levels breached their tolerances. In addition, company management acquired global access to its information, doubly important as it continued to grow and expand. By providing a scalable, modern, easily accessible solution, Data-Command was able to exceed the needs of this quality client.

Tallmadge Water Distribution

Tallmadge, Ohio has a low population; it’s small enough that it purchases all its water from Akron, Ohio and stores it in a water tower for distribution. Their equipment was aging, and used expensive leased lines alongside obsolete and hard-to-obtain equipment.

The system operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, it is not manned around-the-clock. Traditional telemetry firms were contacted to provide a solution for water distribution monitoring, but the cost was continually out of reach: the cost ran 3 times Tallmadge Water’s budget.

We were called in to provide a more economical solution. They needed the tanks monitored, and able to communicate with pumps. The pumps would automatically engage to maintain ideal tank levels. Additionally, the information had to be viewable offsite by several individuals simultaneously. Data-Command was put in control of hosting and backing up the information (which, of course, it completes automatically) as well as sending out automatic alerts through text and voice messages.

Data-Command took practically no time to complete the entire integration, at an extremely low price. Since the water station already had DSL, there were no connectivity fees. The entire system was wired with Avid Wireless RTU’s and a Schneider Electric RTU at the pump station for local control and operation functions.

Water Distribution

A mid-sized Northeast Ohio municipality had a distribution system consisting of two large water tanks that require monitoring 24/7/365. The tanks communicated with the main water treatment plant through the use of leased telephone lines. At the plant the tank levels were fed into a chart recorder which was also responsible for controlling the city’s pumps. Over time the leased lines aged considerably, and the monthly cost and difficulty of servicing the lines and equipment began to outweigh the benefits. The plant was only manned 8 hours per day and personnel only had limited notifications for critical conditions outside these hours. In addition the city had an existing SCADA system for monitoring their in-plant information and wanted to incorporate the information from the distribution system.

The city was already familiar with web based hosted solutions and their benefits so they contacted a Data-Command sales representative for help in providing a solution. Within a short period of time the Data-Command certified partner installed Data-Command compliant products that utilized cellular technology at the tank sites. The information from the tanks was sent to Data-Command’s data centers and the web interface was configured to display city information and notify employees of pertinent events. Through Data-Command’s transport technology, those values were then sent to another Data-Command compliant product connected to the water plant’s chart recorder as well as the Data-Command OPC SCADA interface software operating on the plant’s SCADA computer.

The elimination of the old leased lines immediately cut the city’s monitoring costs in half and allowed them to monitor their distribution system and receive additional critical alerts at any time of the day or night. The Data-Command OPC SCADA interface software allowed the client’s existing SCADA system to display and log information for use during work hours eliminating the need for the operator to go to multiple places to view information. By eliminating the expensive cost of leased lines and the maintenance and cost of an auto dialer system, while at the same time providing 24 hour a day web based monitoring and alerts, Data-Command was able to provide an excellent solution for yet another quality client.

Waste Water Treatment

A Northern Ohio Waste Water collection facility located on the shores of Lake Erie, serving over 8,700 households with a 6.5 MGD average daily flow and a maximum of 12 MGD daily flow had a combined sewer and storm water overflow system. The city had a major issue with a remote lift station central to the facility’s infrastructure. This lift station had an auto-dialer that would monitor the wet well and alarmed on a flood condition but the staff would have no additional information, and unfortunately, the unmonitored pumps had the tendency to plug up periodically. During heavy rain events the station’s wet well would overflow and residents became annoyed with the increasing frequency of their basements flooding. When an alarm was received from the auto-dialer a member of the facility staff would have to make the long trek to the lift station to verify the status of the wet well and possibly unplug the pump. With the approaching rainy season, a limited budget and an already-busy staff, the facility needed a cost effective monitoring solution, and it needed one quickly.

For the solution, facility management turned to Data-Command. Within 48 hours of the time the order was received, a Data-Command certified partner installed Data-Command compliant products that utilized cellular technology to interface with the pumps, existing flow meter and wet well level sensor. This information from the station was sent to Data-Command’s data centers and the web interface was configured to display facility information and notify employees of pertinent events.

The customer now monitors its pumps to verify that they are running and at what speed. When a pump is plugging up the flow rate goes down and the pump speed goes up. This lets them know it is time to maintain the pumps. But when there is a problem with the wet well, Data-Command provides automatic notifications so facility employees can correct the problem before it becomes a major issue. In addition to alert notifications, the Data-Command system allows facility management to view real-time information about the lift station, trend historical data over time and print reports for record-keeping. “The Data-Command solution is fantastic”, stated one key facility employee. “Now when it rains I can just turn on my home computer and see what’s going on at the lift station without having to drive out there.” By easing the burden on company resources and providing a quick, cost-effective solution, Data-Command was able to provide an excellent solution for a quality client.

Industrial Waste Monitoring

Industrial cities such as Cleveland, Ohio house manufacturing facilities that produce chemical by-products that must be disposed. To rid themselves of waste, many of these manufacturers have pretreatment systems that clean the waste before dumping the decanted water into city sewers.

To prevent untreated dumping, sewer authorities must monitor the factory discharge for violations of quality standards.

Unfortunately, these plants are dispersed along the sewage grid – it used to be extremely expensive and difficult to integrate the plants in distant locations. As a solution, competitors offered expensive leased lines or licensed radio systems with low reliability, impracticality, and overly-intensive installation. The sewage service looked for better alternatives.

The sewage company found Data-Command. They needed data that could integrate with their historical collection systems, and be easily accessible from any web browser. Additionally, they had to be warned immediately if the manufacturers were dumping illicit materials, and had to be checked at least every minute. And, of course, the entire system had to be inexpensive.

To save the sewer company’s costs, Data-Command connected through many options. Some facilities had DSL, others had cable or T1 lines. Those that didn’t were easily connected through cell services. Data-Command connected all instrumentation through Avid Wireless RTUs, interfaced with flow meters and fluid samplers.

Within only a few weeks, the system was installed. It automatically began wirelessly and flawlessly communicating, and delivering updates every minute to a secure web server.

Industrial Process Monitoring

A group of investors purchased an aging electro-plating company in Cleveland, Ohio, with the intention of revitalizing it by refurbishing the equipment and improving in-plant processes. One of the first things the new management ascertained was that the plant had a need for process monitoring, particularly for end of process discharge monitoring. Along with taking ownership of the plant, the new management had already inherited a $30,000 fine from the local sewer district for discharging excess amounts of chemicals into the city sewer system. Management wished to be proactive in its monitoring, and sought a way to be alerted in the event that chemical discharge was approaching tolerance limits. The company had very little knowledge on interfacing with their analytical equipment and many of the solutions that were presented to them required that they have a staff that could support specialized software and network configurations. A further obstacle facing management was that to implement the desired improvements, the company was being forced to stretch every dollar.

Company management contacted a Data-Command sales representative for help in providing a solution. Within a short period of time a Data-Command certified partner installed a Data-Command compliant product to interface with the company’s existing pH and ORP meters. These values were transmitted over wireless Ethernet through the plant’s existing network infrastructure to Data-Command’s data centers. Then the company’s web interface was configured to display their information and notify them of pertinent events.

Through Data-Command the company management is able to set up a series of alert notifications to serve as an early warning system for prevention of excess chemical discharge. Management is also able to check pH and ORP levels and process information from their homes or offices, as well as remote locations. This is important as many of the company executives have positions requiring constant travel. By providing a hosted solution the management can focus on their business and do not require any additional staff to manage specialized software. By providing a cost-effective, full-featured solution with sophisticated notification capability, Data-Command is able to successfully exceed the needs of the client. Since the Data-command solution has been on line the client has never received another fine.

Thermal Energy Utility

A district thermal energy utility company that produces steam, hot water and chilled water at central plants, and then pipes that energy to buildings in a district for space heating and air conditioning, for years used a system of leased lines to keep track of the pressure being provided to utility customers. The pressure readings from 20 remote locations were displayed on a single, aging computer running an old DOS operating system. Eventually, the company began looking to expand its infrastructure and monitor more remote locations. In doing so, the company discovered that it was very expense and difficult to get leased lines and supporting technology put in and the existing lines were becoming more difficult to get serviced. In addition, company management began to have a need to monitor its information on a more global level.

The utility contacted a Data-Command sales representative for help in providing a solution. The company elected to install the Data-Command compliant products themselves at two locations. Once installed the units began sending information to Data-Command’s data centers. The client then configured their web displays and validated their information, set up notification schedules and system trends. With the implementation of the new monitoring system complete, the utility company decommissioned its old PC.

Through Data-Command’s web portal, company management was instantly able to view real-time and historical information, as well as system trends. Also, the company was able to easily set up alert parameters in order to receive notifications any time system levels breached their tolerances, as well as cutting its connectivity costs by a considerable margin. In addition, company management acquired global access to its information, doubly important as it continued to grow and expand. By providing a scalable, modern, easily accessible solution, Data-Command was able to satisfy yet another quality client.

Orange Grove Soil Monitoring

Orange groves like Minute Maid and Tropicana plantations sprawl over a huge area in Florida. Especially with the massive scale they operate on, it becomes very important to have ideal conditions for their fruit. In order to produce highest-quality oranges, the orange groves require perfect soil conditions, irrigation, and chemical composition.

The sheer magnitude of the problem (seemingly endless acres) prevented the orange groves from being properly monitored for ideal conditions. The benefits, though they would have been great, simply cost too much to be feasible. Data-Command offered an extremely cheap and reliable solution.

The orange groves needed soil composition to connect with pump controls, be self sufficient with no outside power supply, and have data accessible from multiple offsite locations. Additionally, the information had to be stored and managed offsite, and there was no possibility of any communication network except for cell phones. On account of that fact, the grove operators only ever used cellphones for communication - a detail that continually saves time and effort through immediate connectivity.

Data-Command located key strategic areas in the orange plantations, choosing optimum areas to place the Data-Command device, manufactured by Avid Wireless. After properly dispersing the cellular RTU's, Data-Command automatically detected the RTU within a minute, and began uploading data via securely encrypted data networks.

As per the orange plantation's request, Data-Command had to be super user friendly and requiring little or no maintenance. Data-Command was then configured to monitor itself. If Data-Command found discrepancies in it's patterns, it would automatically fix itself. If self-fixing was impossible, it would phone administrators at Data-Command.

The information itself was automatically graphed and historized behind a password protected internet tunnel. Authorized users can connect to retrieve the Data-Command information at any time, from anywhere connected to the internet. The data is displayed for the user in a pleasing, easy to understand and easy to use manner.

The orange plantations have greatly enjoyed their Data-Command information custom-delivered to them for such an extremely low price.

Bridge Art

Data-Command moves data. When we were initially hired to create art from data, the thought of merging the databases with artistry to make a work of digital beauty, the enormous task at hand excited us.

It was a high traffic bridge with a digital screen that all passers-by would see. The art had to incorporate important real-world data into a pleasing digital output. Furthermore, the output had to change quickly and easily. The change had to be automated, or prompted by an administrator far away.

The ability to make art while still maintaining aesthetic appeal and simultaneously displaying information (like river level, or current) proved to be a fun and formidable task.

Data-Command’s bridge display was contracted on a bridge that had no existing internet capabilities. For this reason, the client requested to have cell-phone connectivity to the bridge. Data-Command, of course, had the solution.

With cellular connections to the bridge, Data-Command gained control over the digital displays. In its incorporation with the river level monitoring, Data-Command installed an alert system: if the river level rose too quickly or too high, Data-Command would automatically warn necessary authorities by means of text messaging.

When we brought the bridge online, spectators were openly in awe of the spectacular montage of digital beauty, morphing as the viewers watched. Unbeknownst to the spectators, the changes in art were fueled by the changes in the river.

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