Is Smarter Always Better - Adopting New Technologies

The control system sector within the water and wastewater industry is constantly changing. New technologies, techniques and equipment are continuously pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved. However, from this questions can arise such as, “should all these new techniques be adopted?” and “do they add value?”. 

For many non-electrical engineers the negative aspects of the new technologies may not be immediately apparent, as often only the positive aspects are detailed within product brochures. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the technologies and equipment within the latest market trends and reviews their positive and negative aspects. This will allow clients to make better decisions on whether or not these new technologies actually add value to the business. If a new technology is not implemented correctly or for the wrong reasons it can actually become a cost to the business. 

There are a significant number of new technologies out there, however this paper will review four topical items namely communication systems, packed plants, SCADA graphics and VSDs. 

Communication systems within motor starters have been around for many years. This has led to a slow industry push towards removing the traditional hardwired systems and replacing them with complete communication based systems. Whether or not these systems add value to a client will depend heavily on the technical skill within their organisation. Communication systems require a much higher level skilled technician to install and maintain. For clients who have these skills in-house a communication based system can provide a huge cost saving. However, typically within the water and wastewater industry these skills are still not common place and therefore the hardwired plus communication approach has been taken. This approach places fundamental control on a hardwired system with auxiliary information being provided by the communication system. This set-up allows low skilled technician to still debug and fault find fundamental issues within the motor starter and improvise temporary solutions if required to make the equipment function. The concept of purchasing a complete packaged plant can be very appealing to many clients. These packages can significantly reducing engineering and construction time resulting in cost savings. However, whether or not these systems add value to client depends on how they package is integrated into the control system. Generally these packages are provided with their own level of autonomous control and therefore can be limiting when trying to connect external monitoring or control functionality. This aspect can therefore quickly reduce their value as clients may require additional instruments or control circuitry in order obtain the level of integration they require. 

The concept of Human Centered Design (HCD) has been around for many years. When applied to SCADA systems the approach would appear to go against the traditional graphical improvements. HDC has been designed to focus on the human element within the control system and therefore only emphatically display the abnormalities. This approach is intended to move away for the “smarter” flashy 3D graphics and colours. Whether or not these systems add value depends significantly on the system size and familiarity of the system. As it also the interface point into the control system, how the system looks and operates is significantly affected by each individual personal preference. 

The variable speed drive (VSD) has become a very common site within the water and wastewater industry. There is no doubt that they can provide great control functionality and energy savings when used correctly. However, the concept of value can quickly be overcome if a VSD has been selected for the incorrect reasons. In these cases the VSD is not used to control speed but is only there as a “just in case”. This is because the installation of a VSD involves significantly more cost than a direct on-line or soft starter.