City of Cold Lake – SCADA Upgrades

City of Cold Lake

SCADA Upgrades

The City contracted Eramosa to perform a SCADA system upgrade which included the addition of redundancy and features to improve the operational usage of the SCADA system as a tool and not as a hindrance. 

The City of Cold Lake’s SCADA system has connections to the City’s water treatment plant, four (4) distribution system facilities, eight (8) waste collection facilities, and two (2) sanitary stations.  The old SCADA system was implemented in the early 2000s and was lacking features available in the latest SCADA system technologies. 

The City selected VTSCADA as the future SCADA platform.  The existing PLC hardware was maintained with the SCADA software being upgraded and includes redundant VTSCADA servers.  Eramosa was responsible for the development and on site implementation of the new SCADA system which included the deployment of servers, network hardware, operator workstations and the addition of a tablet to be used by operations while in the field.  A virtualized VMware environment with redundant hosts was implemented for the SCADA servers and an additional host was implemented for shared services between the SCADA system.  A new DMZ was implemented for the shared services connection which allowed for the emailing of reports and alarms from the SCADA system.

Additional features were added to the SCADA system which included a dedicated Windows Server Active Directory domain controller, Windows Server Updates Services for Microsoft Windows patching, an e.RIS reporting server, workstation and server virus scanning software, and a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.  Alarm notifications through the existing phone line were used and a dedicated backup cellular-based alarm dialer was implemented to notify operations of the conditions where VTSCADA was not able to complete the notification of the alarm to operations.

During the SCADA development, a base High-Performance HMI legend and SCADA Graphic Standard were developed with input from operations.  The High-Performance HMI was customized to include operational preferences such as pump colours for equipment status indication and tank fill colour for distinguishing between different process liquids.  Testing was carried out with operations and handover of the system was completed at the end of 2019.