Location: Goshen, Indiana

Service: Drinking Water

Donohue was retained by the City of Goshen to provide master planning, design, construction administration, and programming services for a new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system that addressed both current and future needs of the City’s water and wastewater facilities. The project’s goal was to design a single, expandable, non-proprietary control system that provides a level of automation to improve operating efficiency and eliminate the need for 24/7 operator attention.

This was accomplished through the utilization of the City-wide fiber ring, as well as the construction of a fiber ring at the wastewater treatment plant that linked together 15 PLCs controlling the City’s wastewater treatment plant, two water plants, two water towers, a 212-peak-mgd wet weather detention facility, a remote pumping station, and 34 remote lift stations.

The project required a thorough investigation of the existing equipment as well as an understanding of the necessary process operating strategy and practice. Workshops were conducted to define system requirements and provide a forum to share information and develop the final design alongside City staff. To facilitate software development and PLC standards development, Donohue set up a virtual machine for early testing, training, and development of the PLC and HMI program.

The new water and wastewater SCADA system reduces operating costs by replacing existing obsolete equipment, improving operating efficiency, reducing current operating staffing requirements, recovering filter backwash water, and reducing electrical power.