AUSTIN WATER UTILITY
	Water Distribution Control System
	Austin Water provides water and wastewater services to 1.2M customers in the Austin, Texas metropolitan area.

Issue
The City of Austin has experienced enormous growth in recent years. This growth has challenged the Austin Water Utility’s ability to provide water services to their rapidly expanding customer base. Of particular concern was the outdated, tone telemetry based system used to monitor and control the City’s water distribution facilities. The system was designed so that operators from each of the City’s three water treatment plants controlled the water supply to a particular area of the City. This configuration made coordinated system-wide control unwieldy, especially as the distribution system became more complex. In addition, the telemetry system components were experiencing high failure rates, and since the equipment was obsolete, replacement parts were difficult to obtain.

Solution
Austin Water selected Westin to assist with the design of a state-of-the art, centralized control system for the water distribution facilities. Westin, working closely with utility staff, defined system requirements, evaluated alternatives, and developed basic design criteria for the new system. The selected system architecture was based on open system concepts and included:

• Digital microwave-based Wide Area Network
• MAS radio-based system for remote communications
• Standardized RTU design
• Centralized Control Center with modern operator workstations and large screen displays

Following completion of a Preliminary Engineering Report, Westin developed plans and specifications for a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to improve real-time control of water distribution facilities and water quality. The Water Distribution Control System was planned to monitor and control 128 sites including pump stations, reservoirs, control valves and pressure points. The system was required to:

• Consolidate water distribution operations at a centralized control center
• Provide data to operators at three water treatment plants
• Provide data to maintenance supervisors at two service centers
• Support utility managers and management reporting at the utility's headquarters
• Interface to the utility's Management Information System Network
• Provide data sharing among appropriate users on the city's information system

Westin developed a detailed design and provided procurement support for the distributed SCADA system, digital microwave wide area network, MAS radio communications system and instrumentation/site upgrades.

Outcome
The fully implemented WDCS SCADA System allows Austin Water system operators to effectively monitor and control the water distribution facilities from a centralized control center. This centralized control provides more coordinated operations, especially during system upset conditions. In addition, the standardized design approach and open system architecture has enabled the Utility to easily add components as new facilities are added to their distribution system.