In a unanimous vote earlier this month, the Rocky View County (RVC) council approved a joint application with the Town of Crossfield that will result in the creation of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Master Plan.
The plan's goal is to support, monitor, and analyze the County's water and wastewater system equipment and procedures.
Desiree Vetter, the acting manager of utility services at Rocky View County explained where the idea for the plan came about.
"We had a study done last year on all of our automation systems within the county, so that's everything from our SCADA system to our controls that run our plants and systems. The study identified that improvements are needed within our system."
According to Vetter, a grant opportunity to receive $200,000 for the SCADA portion of the plan was brought to their attention.
"We talked with Crossfield and asked if they would like to partner with us on this grant, ACP (Alberta Community Partnership). And they said yes, so we applied, and fingers crossed that we will get it."
She went on to explain exactly what SCADA is.
"You go on a computer and you can click a button to turn a valve on or off. We have Flow Meters within our system, and the SCADA system monitors the flow, which we can then trend. It's what we use for alarms. So if a pump shuts off because it overheats, our SCADA system will trigger the alarm and alert the operators that this pump has shut off."
It's the brain of the operation that keeps their infrastructure running and running smoothly, she explained
"It's great having partners such as the town of Crossfield because we work together to maintain all our systems to best support our residents and communities, keep people safe and keep costs down."
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