With water facilities facing challenges created by ageing infrastructure, plus the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to digitally transform operations is acute
Manish Sharma, industry marketing leader, power and water, Emerson?s machine automation solutions, explains how edge controllers are helping organisations to implement smart water philosophies that help optimise operational performance.
Operators of water treatment and distribution facilities around the world are facing significant challenges. Growing urbanisation is putting extra strain on existing infrastructure, which is often ageing and subject to failure, thereby threatening the purity and availability of potable water. At traditional water treatment and distribution facilities, older automation system architectures cannot deliver the depth of data that is required to facilitate operational improvements.
As freshwater sources decline because of saltwater intrusion and water tables fall, this has led to an upward trend in water recycling and advanced desalination projects, and here too greater data generation and visualisation is vital. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic affects workforce availability, remote operations capability and response times to incidents and equipment issues. These challenges make the need for digital transformation in the industry more acute than ever.
Consequently, a growing number of organisations are adopting a smart water philosophy and putting themselves on the path to digital transformation by using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies and services to optimise the efficiency of their new and existing operations. These technologies are enabling them to reduce water theft, water loss due to leakage, and energy consumption, and to move from calendar-scheduled or hours-scheduled maintenance to condition-based maintenance.
For those considering adopting these tools to update their existing systems or install new ones, it is important that they follow an approach of incorporating IIoT-enabled capabilities with clearly defined business outcomes. An organisation?s roadmap towards digital transformation can start small ? for example by addressing a key issue such as pump health at a single facility ? and build from there. This can perhaps involve company-wide programmes across an area such as reliability, or can even be as large as adopting an enterprise-wide strategy with a view to enabling true business transformation.
Data generation and analysis
To accomplish these goals, system designers and end users must first identify the input/output (I/O) points to be monitored, and then install instruments and sensors (preferably intelligent) to generate comprehensive process and diagnostic data. Once intelligent instrumentation is in place to generate the required data, organisations can then take another key step on their journey towards digital transformation by implementing the most suitable technology to gather the data for analysis.
It has long been possible to put together instruments, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), I/O, networking and computer software in order to gather data for analysis. However, it is challenging to design, operate and maintain such conglomerations of parts and technologies, especially when considering the large geographic spread of many water operations. A better choice of data gathering technology for water processing and distribution operations would be an industrial edge controller.
Edge controllers
Industrial edge controllers are robust devices, similar to PLCs and remote terminal units, which provide reliable control and enable IIoT-capable data communications in tough operating environments. Edge controllers can collect, store and analyse huge amounts of process data and provide actionable insights leading to improved decision-making.
A key strength of edge controllers is that they provide two systems in one device, using hardware virtualisation to create a deterministic real-time controller in parallel with a general purpose operating system such as Linux. The deterministic and general purpose systems operate independently but in parallel, and can securely communicate via OPC UA ? the industry standard that ensures the open connectivity, interoperability, security and reliability of industrial automation devices and systems.
The deterministic system is used to directly monitor and control equipment via I/O in the same way as a powerful PLC. It can communicate with these sensors, instruments and devices via leading operational technology (OT) communications protocols such as PROFINET, SRTP, Ethernet Global Data (EGD), and Modbus TCP/IP to gather all necessary field data.
The general purpose system, on the other hand, is available to perform higher level functions such as data processing, analysis and visualisation. This part of the edge controller can run many applications and programming languages, and supports modern protocols such as MQTT which is IT-centric, firewall-friendly and consumes low bandwidth. The general purpose system can also host custom drivers for devices unsupported by the deterministic system, thereby extending the control system?s ability to communicate with and control devices.
Because edge controllers combine a deterministic system with a general purpose system, they provide unique capabilities compared with assembling a system out of many other elements. The deterministic controller directly monitors and controls equipment, such as flowmetres and valves, gathering data which is communicated to the on-board general purpose system. The general purpose system can then provide the data to higher-level systems, and can also directly analyse the data to determine optimum operating values. In turn, the general purpose system can inform the deterministic system of these values so that it can take appropriate action. Thus the edge controller platform provides the combined ability to perform real-time process control with computing for optimisation and learning. This provides better connectivity and visibility for operations and management, while taking the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) layer closer to the field.
Benefits for water operations
A smart water philosophy can prove extremely valuable, as illustrated by the following example.
Typical rotating equipment, such as a water pump, can be driven by an intelligent variable frequency drive; controlled by a PLC with additional I/O for bearing temperatures; fitted with a separate vibration monitoring system; and monitored by other ambient temperature sensors or power distribution systems. An edge controller can connect to each of these sources. It can gather and make available all the data generated, which can then be used to develop a linear regression model predicting the health index of the equipment. Many of these pumps across different locations can then be compared in context with each other, enabling organisations to learn their performance characteristics and failure modes. Translating all this raw data into useful information helps the operations team to schedule equipment maintenance and order spares on an as-needed basis, thereby reducing costs. This methodology can be applied to many forms of equipment.
Conclusion
With water organisations facing multiple challenges in operating and managing their facilities, there is an acute need for the adoption of digital transformation strategies and smart water philosophies to optimise their operations. Edge controllers can play a vital role in supporting this. Generating and analysing the right data enables organisations to make better-informed decisions, which can lead to significant improvements such as better water quality, cleaner effluent, reduced energy consumption, reduced operational costs, and maximised availability.
Do you want to know more? Visit Emerson!
