The Botswana Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) has awarded Rockwell Automation a R7,7-million contract for the telemetry and network upgrade of its critical North South Carrier water pipeline.
The 14-month project, awarded in November 2005, became a priority as a result of obsolete equipment, unavailability of spares and the rising costs of keeping ageing equipment reliable. "The critical nature of this water pipeline means that it needs to be monitored and controlled 24 hours a day, which is a major challenge considering the fact that it runs through 360 km of mainly remote areas," explains Rockwell Automation project manager, Slawek Wojcik.
The main purpose of this scheme is to draw water from Letsibogo Dam about 15 km from Selibe Phikwe to Mmamashia, a small village 20 km north of Gaborone. The water is treated at Mmamashia and supplied to Gaborone, Otse Village, Mochudi, Phakalane and Selibe Phikwe. The water scheme comprises of three treatment plants situated at Palapye, Mahalapye and Mmamashia, four pump stations and three break pressure tanks. The Southern Command Centre at Mmamashia and the Northern Command Centre at Selibe Phikwe are both fully operational and have equal capabilities, with Mmamashia acting as the master station.
A scada system at each side of the pipeline monitors and controls functions ranging from tank levels to pumps and valves. Because of the distances involved, 80% of the infrastructure along this pipeline is unmanned, which negatively affects response times.
Following a week of on-site system architecture analysis, Rockwell Automation proposed that a radio frequency (RF) network with masts ranging from 6 m to 54 m be installed in addition to the existing two fibre cables being rented from Botswana Telecom by the Water Utilities Corporation. An Ethernet-over-radio network will then host a separate scada system, which means that every measuring point along the pipeline will be double-wired to both the existing fibre cable and RF network. Once the new system has been commissioned and proven successful, control will be switched to the RF network, while the cables will remain as back-up, and to host the water utilities information technology network. Ethernet was selected in the face of the distances involved, and its compatibility with standard communication protocols. It was also decided that Rockwell Automation would upgrade the existing scada system.
"Once completed, the new infrastructure will allow an operator to plug his laptop into the network at any point along the pipeline, access all the data he needs and scada functionality," explains Wojcik. "We will further be installing a telephone at each location for Voice over Internet Protocol communication using the Ethernet line, as there is no other telephonic communication infrastructure in the area. This means that technicians will no longer have to work in isolation."
WUC has already invested over R500 000 in training its personnel at Rockwell Automation's South African head offices on the operation as well as the maintenance of the hardware and software involved, helping to ensure that the critical pipeline will continue to run smoothly. It is envisaged that the next step would be to upgrade and integrate all infrastructure along the pipeline, such as treatment plants and the like.
For more information contact Slawek Wojcik, Rockwell Automation, 011 654 9700, [email protected]
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