Most New England residents are familiar with the summer migration to Cape Cod, where the quieter part of Massachusetts is becoming a popular holiday destination. In fact, the city of Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, sees its population increase from 25,000 to 120,000 in the summer months.
While this provides a boost to the local economy, it also
poses unique infrastructure challenges - especially in the city's water supply
system, which faces the burden of water and wastewater from seasonal population
growth.
Other unique challenges facing the city in terms of water
infrastructure include:
The pumping station, built in the late 19th century, is
Falmouth's main source of water, providing clean but unfiltered water.
Tightening rules setting waterproof and wastewater quality
levels that are difficult to comply with.
Budgetary constraints are forcing the city to rethink its
24/7 staffing model for the summer months.
Therefore, the local government decided to invest in a
reliable and modern information and governance architecture. While Falmouth was
pleased with the inclusion of standard controls, PLCs and actuators, they
realized that running SCADA and associated control / information software on a
standard server would only give them 99% reliability and lead to unplanned
downtime.
Falmouth determined that using standard servers would result
in approximately three unplanned downtime per year, which would result in a
lack of operational water and sanitation systems for approximately 3.5 days per
year. This was unacceptable to the water department, which also acknowledged
that its expertise was not in servicing computer systems, but in dealing with
plumbing and sewerage.
This is where advanced computing is most valuable — a
remote environment in which applications perform critical tasks and functions
with little or no IT knowledge.
To solve this important pieces of the puzzle, Falmouth's
engineering team reached out to our team at Stratus Technologies. As part of a
shared solution from Rockwell Automation and other Rockwell Encompass partners,
we have implemented a continuous availability and virtualization solution on
our ftServer platform, allowing all Falmouth applications to run on a single
server.
Falmouth no longer had to worry about a component failure —
all applications would continue to run and automatically resynchronize in the
event of a component failure. The result is a total solution with 99.99% uptime
- less than 1 hour of unplanned downtime per year.
This more reliable system also eliminates the need for call
operators in the factory. Falmouth can now diagnose and resolve virtually any
operational problem remotely, which means staffing can be planned and supported
more efficiently, saving money for the city's budget. Finally, this new server
minimized data loss and automated status reporting requirements, allowing
Falmouth City staff to work on new projects.
Similar stories are common in water and wastewater treatment
plants. Fortunately, when municipalities invest in the right technology, they
can create real value for their communities by saving costs and reducing the
risk of system failure.