AWWA CSC95030

The utilization of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems for control of treatment facilities and distribution systems has become commonplace for water utilities of all sizes. In today's technologic climate, rapid advancement of available technology, as well as changing information management needs require that utilities continually review existing systems and develop a migration plan toward current and future technologies. The Regional Water Authority (RWA) SCADA System, designed in the mid to late 1980s, was based on leading edge hardware and software technologies. The system is no longer state-of-the-art, and over time it has failed to fulfill needs for performance, and openness to integration and vendor support. The RWA needed to develop a SCADA system master plan which would address the SCADA system performance and openness needs, as well as the need to interact with other information management systems. This paper highlights the process of developing SCADA upgrade alternatives to meet current and anticipated future needs, as based on an information system migration plan.