Nathaniel Scott, PE is an electrical engineer with expertise in industrial power and controls, as well as power system analysis. Nathan received his BSEE from Arkansas Tech.

Ethan Hutchins interned at Brown while earning his BSME from UALR, and has accepted a position with Brown as our newest mechanical designer.

Michael Biebesheimer, PE received his BSME from the University of Arkansas. Michael is based at Brown’s new Northwest Arkansas branch in Bentonville.

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Automation practitioners can also be hampered by resource-constrained legacy equipment, insecure communication protocols and antiquated Ladder Logic programming.

So what’s wrong with legacy equipment and applications?

It’s been working for many years, so why risk changing anything? Often the stimulus to replace existing automation is that the PLCs or hardware devices that have been in service for decades have finally been discontinued by manufacturers.

From a cost standpoint, the best approach might be to migrate the existing software onto a newer hardware platform and put it back into service. But is that always the right answer? At what point is the best decision to implement modern devices and development methodologies? 

Some industrial automation seems quite simple; a pump or valve can be used to maintain the level in a tank. It becomes much more complicated when processes, consisting of many steps, are automated. An even more challenging project would be to automate a multi-step process on similar, yet non-identical process equipment.

A Unique Approach

The Ouachita Water Treatment Plant Filter Improvement project in Hot Springs required implementation of an improved filter automation system including an automated backwash process.

There are a total of 9 filters: 6 of one style and 3 of a different style. Because of the differences in the construction of the filters and the plant hydraulics, each filter required similar but unique setpoints and configuration ranges for a multitude of parameters.

A fundamental aspect of the design philosophy was to model the various components of the system and then combine these components to provide a model of each filter. In addition, a simulation was built using the model components, so that the system could be tested and evaluated months before it was scheduled to be installed.

This was critical to the success of the project, because the various stakeholders were able to interact with the system and provide feedback significantly in advance of deployment. This modular approach also limited deployment risk, because any changes made to each “type” of equipment were automatically applied to all other instances of similar equipment.

The modular development philosophy is repeated throughout the system. Object-oriented programming techniques were utilized to develop components on the PLC. This approach virtually eliminated redundant code that would have resulted from a copy-paste-change style of implementation, which requires the developer to search and replace similar program elements manually. Data structures were created in the SCADA system that aligned with the objects created on the PLC.

To reinforce this link, the data structures in the SCADA system were given the same names as the PLC objects. Visual components were created in the SCADA system that provided a user interface for the various data structures. Finally, the data structures and visual components were combined to provide a visual representation of the model running on the PLC.

A consistent, modular approach simplifies change management, which increases system reliability and maintainability. Changes to the PLC model are generally applied to only the definition of each component, and these changes are automatically applied to all instances of that component throughout the system by the PLC development system.

If changes to the PLC model impact the SCADA data structures, only the definition of the data structure must be updated, and then changes are applied automatically by the SCADA system. If changes to the PLC model impact the SCADA visual components, these changes must only be made to the definition of these components and the changes are then applied automatically by the SCADA system.

For example, during deployment it was determined that one of the types of valves closed whenever the “open” signal was not present, instead of having separate “open” and “close” signals as expected. The PLC model for this valve type was changed and no other changes were required.

Another example is that a flow totalizer was requested after deployment. The PLC model was altered to include the flow calculation, the SCADA data structure was altered to add the new data element, and the SCADA visual component was altered to add the new data element. No other changes were required and the change was applied to system automatically by the PLC and SCADA development applications.

Increased Values of Reliability and Maintainability

For simple automation systems, a copy-paste-edit style of application development with legacy tools may provide the shortest initial development time in some instances, but a modular development approach adds significant value in the long term due to increased flexibility, reliability, reusability and maintainability; the added complexity of the model development simplifies the overall solution.

Sam Vandiver, PE is Vice President of Automation at Brown Engineers.

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In December 2017, Ben Rainwater, PhD of Brown Engineers was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to research the development of a water engineering educational tool for high school students. This Phase I grant, from NSF’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, allows Brown Engineers to translate real-world engineering into a STEM curriculum in an engaging, hands-on way.

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Behind this accomplishment are three people who’ve built and fostered key relationships, cultivating repeat clients who now call on Brown Engineers first for mechanical and electrical engineering.

They consistently impress with their professionalism, initiative and skill in finding creative solutions. They’re also warm, thoughtful and engaging, with a talent for exceeding expectations.

These three project managers are Melanie Richardson, Scott Geurin and Alex Trulove. Last week, they joined Dee Brown, Bruce Brown, and Nick McNeill as principals of Brown Engineers.

“We’ve got to celebrate and reward this level of achievement, to honor them and to encourage continued growth and excellence.”  Bruce Brown, co-founder, Brown Engineers

Please join us in congratulating Scott, Melanie, and Alex.

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Join Dee Brown, principal of Brown Engineers, this Wednesday, April 19 from 11:00 a.m. to noon CDT, for a free live webinar examining how and why Russellville and Clarksville recently switched to New SCADA systems with secure PLCS. Since switching over a year ago, both utilities report great results and plan to expand their usage in future. Experts from both the hardware and software vendors will participate and answer attendee questions.

If you missed the chance to participate in this free one-hour live seminar, you can still catch the recording here.

The post More Powerful, Open & Secure SCADA—on a Budget! appeared first on Brown Engineers.

On March 16, 2017, Brown Engineers received the 2017 Engineering Excellence Award for Energy Efficiency from ACEC-Arkansas, for the new electric utility SCADA system in Clarksville, Arkansas. Brown created the nation’s first cybersecure electric SCADA system for Clarksville Light and Water, using Bedrock Automation’s military-grade controllers, which are impervious to cyber-attacks and EMP bursts.

The new electric SCADA system delivers secure remote monitoring, control, data collection and reporting to authorized utility staff at CLW’s Network Operations Center or via remote devices. CLW expects to save over $400,000 per year through reduced energy losses, better monitoring, and improved reliability of the electric grid, all direct results of this project.

Brown sized the utility’s new citywide, 288-strand fiber optic loop to support CLW’s SCADA system plus extensive additional business and community development. CLW now has sufficient fiber capacity to offer broadband Internet service to residents, businesses, schools, hospitals and local government agencies at very competitive rates, keeping hundreds of thousands of dollars in Clarksville.

The utility’s general manager also envisions offering free Wi-Fi at local parks and downtown areas, a benefit for students and low-income residents. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission is evaluating Clarksville as a prime location for new industrial and manufacturing centers, due to their local business park, fiber communications, and improved electric power reliability.

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Control Engineering’s Applied Automation magazine is the premier title serving manufacturing and utilities. Each issue demonstrates how automation, instrumentation and control techniques are applied to increase capacity, enhance design and production, improve efficiency, increase profitability and meet regulatory requirements.

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SCADA network designed to deflect cyber attacks, meet future utility and municipal needs, and connect people, business and industry.

On Tuesday, September 27, CLW General Manager John Lester joined our own Dee Brown at the 2016 Smart Industry Conference in Chicago. The two presented Clarksville Light & Water’s game-changing, cyber-secure New SCADA project, which illustrates how Brown Engineers is helping utilities better manage their infrastructure while adding an embedded layer of cyber-security.

Clarksville Light & Water (CLW) is a small-town utility that’s reaping big benefits as an early adopter of recent SCADA software and hardware innovations. CLW provides electric, water and wastewater services to a community of about 10,000 in northwest Arkansas, one of the fastest growing areas in the nation. This upgrade enhances Clarksville’s ability to attract (and support) the many businesses and industries drawn to this vibrant, progressive region each year.

Toward that goal, CLW installed 16.7 miles of 288 strand fiber cable citywide, using redundant loops for maximum reliability, primarily for its internal SCADA systems (water, wastewater and electric). A new Network Operations Center (NOC) now houses servers in a weather resistant vault for secured data storage and back up.

With vision and foresight, CLW management and the Utility Commission opted to overbuild the network. The new fiber network was “super-sized” with plenty of extra capacity to support other goals including additional smart grid applications, future broadband expansion, and future smart communications and data management for local government, transportation, library, healthcare and education.

The SCADA upgrade, designed and installed by Brown Engineers, was completed in mid-2016 using Ignition software by Inductive Automation in conjunction with Bedrock Automation’s cyber-secure automation platform.

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This coming Wednesday (9/21/16), Dee Brown will speak in Folsom, California at next week’s sold-out Ignition Community Conference (ICC’16), hosted by Inductive Automation (IA). He’ll discuss how Brown Engineers, a Certified Premier Integrator for IA, used Ignition’s incredibly versatile SCADA HMI software and Bedrock Automation’s ultra-secure PLC’s to help Clarksville Light & Water (CLW) future-proof its utility systems.

 
Clarksville, Arkansas is a small but forward-thinking town with a big vision, as demonstrated by CLW General Manager John Lester, who worked with Brown to leverage the utility’s electrical division SCADA upgrade by installing 16.7 miles of 288-strand fiber optic in redundant loops citywide. This allows CLW to readily extend its new SCADA system’s functionality and efficiency into other departments and operations as the utility desires.

“Now that the foundation is in place, the long-term plan is to automate circuit switching, monitor and load-balance on the the local grid, as well as leverage the technology to do demand-side management,” says Lester. “We expect to realize improved overall reliability, shortened response times, and reduced overall power supply costs.”

This fiber network, completed in 2016, accommodates onsite and remote monitoring, controls and data collection for water, wastewater and electrical operation. But that’s not all. Lester directed Brown to design the fiber network with enough capacity to also support police/fire 911, education, healthcare and local industry usage. The fiber optic loop even allows CLW to provide locally owned and operated high speed internet access in the future.

 
CLW’s SCADA architecture, built on Ignition’s SCADA HMI software platform and Bedrock Automation’s cyber-secure hardware platform, is ultra-efficient, versatile and delivers an unprecedented new layer of cybersecurity, embedded right into its PLC’s.

” A lot of utility managers are trying to understand what in the world they’re supposed to do about cyber threats. Bedrock Automation embeds authentication right in the hardware layer: the most hardened and easily implemented solution we’ve seen.”  Dee Brown, PE

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