DCC to upgrade water plants monitoring system

Less than two weeks on from flooding in South Dunedin, the city council seems to acknowledge its water pipes and pumps monitoring systems leave room for “significant opportunities for improvement”.

Dunedin City Council yesterday sent out a Request for Proposal looking for a new partner to maintain the Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system operated by its 3 Waters department.

“3 Waters operates a SCADA system that covers five metropolitan treatment plants, seven community treatment plants and close to two hundred remote telemetry sites,” the RFP states.

“The 3 Waters department operates a Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to provide local and remote monitoring of our treatment plant assets, along with data collection for operational and compliance purposes. The system has evolved over a number of years and while serviceable there are significant opportunities for improvement.

“Previously the maintenance of the system has been undertaken as part of a combined Electrical / SCADA contract and we are separating these contracts out, this opportunity being for the SCADA and automation portion.

“The SCADA system is separated in to two distinct parts with Water running on the Aveva Intouch platform and Waste and Stormwater running on Schnieder IFix. Similarly, the remote telemetry sites are separated. We wish to improve the SCADA system by migrating away from the IFix software platform and standardising the look, feel and engineering. We’re going to market to find a long-term automation partner that can bring a wealth of experience in upgrading legacy systems along with a standardised approach.”

"DCC is looking an experienced automation provider who has experience working with local government to maintain, review and improve its SCADA system to ensure it remains fit for purpose and resilient.”

The deadline for tenders closes on November 15, with the contract expected to start in March 2025.

Main image: Surrey Street flooding on October 4.