Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is the government agency which manages one of the largest
water infrastructures in New Delhi, spanning a network of 11350 km which serves
nearly 18 million consumers. The utility is responsible for the production and distribution
of potable water as well as for collection, treatment and disposal of domestic sewage
in the capital. It also manages a complex water supply system which carries water
to various areas, based on requirements.
The Need
Delhi is one of India's fastest growing metropolises. From among the six Indian
mega-cities having a population of over 5 million people, only Delhi's population
grew at an annual growth rate exceeding 4% during the last decade. Due to this,
the water supply in Delhi has been under strain and it has been facing scarcity
of water resources.
DJB is responsible for entire Delhi's water supply and sewage system. It owns and
operates several Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) and associated pumping and booster
pumping sub-stations to serve the citizens of Delhi.
One such WTP is Bhagirathi, which was designed and commissioned in the year 1983.
It works on proven conventional treatment technologies. It provides quality potable
water 24x7 to entire east Delhi covering a population of 40 lakhs.
DJB has decided to improve operations of Bhagirathi's WTP by minimising operation
and maintenance costs, minimising water losses due to wastages and monitoring effective
utilisation of water and power.
DJB conducted multiple surveys by engaging various consultants. Based on their reports,
DJB concluded that by rehabilitation and automation of the plant and outsourcing
its operation and maintenance, it would be possible to: reduce the cost of portable
water production, save electricity charges and effectively utilise manpower. Incurring
a marginal cost would result in total rehabilitation of the plant, thus giving it
a new look. It would also enhance equipment life and equip the plant to run for
many more years.
The task of implementing this project, the first of its kind, was awarded to Larsen
& Toubro's Construction Group. The entire Bhagirathi WTP was handed over to it for
rehabilitation a nd automation, with one year defect liability and 10 years of operation
and maintenance.
The existing Bhagirathi WTP being manually operated, was not flexible and did not
allow DJB to react quickly to variation in water demand. In addition, there was
substantial loss of water (in excess of 10 MGD) both from sludge drainage and filter
backwash. In order to reduce the loss of water, it was necessary to operate the
plant in auto mode.
L&T Construction awarded the contract for turnkey electrical, control and instrumentation
solution for Bhagirathi WTP and Distribution Areas to L&T Electrical & Automation's
C&A business unit, which is one of India's leading electrical & automation companies.
As part of the contract, C&A was responsible for the design, engineering, development,
testing and commissioning of a state-of-the-art SCADA system, control systems along
with instruments for automation of Bhagirathi WTP with the Central Control Room
at Bhagirathi, Muradnagar Pumping Station, Sangam Raw Water Pump House, Distribution
Control Room, 21 nos underground reservoirs across Delhi and 5 control stations
for operators.
To achieve the desired level of automation for remote monitoring and control, C&A
installed i Visionmax SCADA with Programmable Logic Controllers
(PLCs) and Remote Terminal Units.
As part of this, C&A has commissioned 7 nos Hot Redundant PLC system with SCADA,
21 nos RTUs, 48 Standalone PLC panels and consoles, SCADA, setup wireless network
and central command centre. All these systems connected with each other on multiple
communication channels including GPRS, WiFi, leased line and Local LAN.
1. SCADA for Remote Monitoring at Distribution Central Control room at Mandawali
BPS on leased line.
2. SCADA on Web Interface at office of DJB Headquarters.
3. RTU at 21 underground reservoir locations, over GPRS Network to monitor various
Convert Rooms mentioned above.
4. RTU inside plant for 8 Nos Clarifiers over WiFi.
The SCADA solutions monitor and control Bhagirathi WTP, Substation, Chemical house,
2 Filter houses with 40 nos filter console desks, Sludge pump house, Dirty Backwash
pump house, 10 MGDs, 6 MGD Recycling plants, Sangam Raw water Pump house and Murad
pumping station.
The distributed architecture helps in remote monitoring and management of 21 nos
underground reservoir units (UGR), 20 wells using the GPRS data transmission.
The systems communicate with a variety of sensors to monitor parameters such as
flow and pressure from water sources into tanks, flow and pressure from tanks into
the towns and tank level. It also controls pumps and valves in each station to allow
or disallow the water flowing to the other.
Thei Visionmax SCADA allows operators to view the status
of pumps and water levels. The software which can generate alarms, allows users
to access their system information over the internet using web client.
The system comprises redundant server configured in main/standby set-up, with the
standby server operating from the disaster recovery site.
Accurate real-time alerts and online reports provided over web through user friendly
dashboards, help DJB in close monitoring of operations, identification of losses,
decision support and automation of operations, improving efficiency and network
command.
Result
DJB is now able to monitor the entire operation and performance of equipment in
real time. It provides visibility and early awareness of potential problems, which
has averted critical issues in several cases . Some of the benefits after the implementation
of reliable and cost-effective i Visionmax SCADA solution
at DJB are summarised below:
- Improved and/or consistent product quality
- Repeatable performance
- Greater environmental compliance and values
- Increased productivity
- Reduction in downtime and maintenance costs
- Reduction in operation costs
- Use of manpower in other value creating activities
- Availability of accurate data/information, enabling timely decision making and better
process control
- Real time information minimises the reaction time to problems and prevents critical
situations. It also provides precise and real time guidance to the field service
team so that problems can be quickly identified.
- Greater customer satisfaction