INTEGRATING HYDRAULIC MODELING AND SCADA SYSTEMS FOR SYSTEM-PLANNING AND CONTROL

The DuPage Water Commission (DWC) of Elmhurst, Ill., has built a new water distribution network and is monitoring it using an integrated supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) simulator (ISS). The ISS integrates DWC's SCADA system and its hydraulic simulator to confirm system design, develop operational scenarios, and train operators to respond to emergencies. Operations personnel have already verified the accuracy of the hydraulic simulator, which enabled them to resolve an operational problem involving a low-pressure system response. The ISS has been demonstrated for initial system studies, for verification of the transfer mechanism, and for actual storage management studies during unexpected drought strains on the system in the summer of 1992. Emergency training through return of data from the simulator to the SCADA system has been delayed. The training will enable an operator to simulate a main break, for example, and practice alternative responses by manipulating a system of remotely controlled isolation valves. Using the ISS, operators can become familiar with unusual conditions before they occur in the real system, which began operation in January 1992.