Remote water storage tank management
Client: Department for the Environment and Heritage
Location: South Australia
Date: May 2010 – ongoing
Empowering safe and reliable remote management of critical water storage tanks for Mount Lofty Botanic Garden
Background
The Mount Lofty Botanic Garden (MLBG) is a sprawling 97 hectares of plantings on the slopes of Mt Lofty near Adelaide, South Australia.
Water supply servicing the garden’s irrigation network, public and staff amenity buildings, and bushfire protection assets is sourced from 3 water storage tanks. The tanks are supplied from nearby groundwater bores using electric pumps. Old control methods and the need for local operation to maintain the correct operating levels in the tanks imposed operational burdens on MLBG grounds staff, and increased the risks of human error and health, safety and environmental issues while performing the tasks. To overcome this, our client sought a new remotely operated automated solution.
Solution
Entura was engaged to automate the operation using modern control networks and establish systems to enable remote management of the MLBG’s water storage network.
We designed and installed a new system to control the pumps and maintain correct operating levels. The system was designed for ease of use and simplicity, comprising pressure transducers to measure water levels, radios to communicate with the logger/controller and software as an interface to the system.
The network is made up of a base site (control and operator interface), 3 remote water tanks and 2 remote pump sites. The levels of each tank are sent to the control hub by radio. The controller determines whether tanks require filling. If a tank is empty, remote pumps are turned on until the desired level is reached.
Numerous alarm states are monitored too, such as tanks overflowing, or pumps failing to turn on or off. If a fault occurs, an operator is notified via SMS and can access the site remotely via smartphone to acknowledge faults or switch to manual override.
Services provided
- end-user consultation
- scoping
- engineering design
- procure, build and test
- deploy and commission
- operate and maintain
- training
Outcome
MLBG is continuing to benefit from Entura’s unique and flexible full end-to-end service offering including scoping, end-user consultation, conceptual and detailed design, construction, installation, training, operation and maintenance.
Our client has realised water savings, improved reliability, reduced operational burden and better safety outcomes.
