Middlesex County Utilities Authority Leverages Proficy iFIX and Proficy Historian to Get the Most Out of Their Data

The Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA) has preserved and protected central New Jersey’s environmental resources through responsible waste management and stewardship of the environment around the Raritan River and Raritan Bay since its creation in 1950.

The Authority, a public entity, was established by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners to manage the county’s wastewater and solid waste services, but their mission doesn’t stop there. They are committed to promoting public health, protecting environmental resources, and sustaining the development and growth of Middlesex County through efficient and responsible operations of their Wastewater Treatment Facility and the Middlesex County Landfill, which has a direct impact on the quality of life of over 800,000 residents and businesses in central New Jersey.

They’ve been using Velotic’s Proficy Historian and iFIX solutions for over 17 years to collect, store, and analyze data, and to improve productivity and process control across their facility with industrial-strength SCADA automation software and high-performance HMI.

They needed to coordinate and integrate SCADA packages after discovering they had a mix from different companies. They made the decision to rip out existing systems and implement iFIX to standardize their SCADA package. At this time, they had around 25 PLCs. They standardized on iFIX and now they have over 100 PLCs – some of which are at remote pump stations. All SCADAs from different processes – locally and remote – are integrated into the central treatment plant SCADA. Their operations SCADA connects directly through them over a highspeed internet connection through multiple firewalls, etc.

Results from data collection, storage, industrial-strength SCADA automation software and high-performance HMI:

• Improved data integrity
• Increased visibility across pump stations
• Easy collection and centralization of data for local access
• Supports the creation of a customized app

Now with iFIX, the operations SCADA shows all their information on the process side. They’re able to see their pump stations and the over 70 chambers over the cell connection in a centralized view. MCUA built out over time, a separate SCADA servers for each of their processes to follow the recommended Purdue model. They have what they call an electrical SCADA – main tie main electrical gear with a dozen or so substations – and iFIX runs all of that at the plant. They’ve been strategically integrating remote electrical gear at their pump stations and landfill over the last two years. The goal is to display real-time data in iFix and historize the data at a centralized location.

iFIX allows them to bring all the data in, centralize it, and localize it if necessary. Almost all remote sites have their own local historian with server-to-server connection up to the main two Historians - one for process and one for electrical. They’ve also just rolled out a centralized Configuration Hub supported by Velotic to help move to the next version of iFIX. They can utilize the Configuration Hub to centralize security.

"I like the flexibility between iFIX and the Historians to make sure that if you have a single point of failure, not only do you have your SCADA up and running real-time, but there's the idea of the redundant collectors to then backfill the data… you can set the structure up to make sure you're getting all your data and not missing it."

Chief Technology Officer at Middlesex County Utilities Authority

MCUA has been able to build a custom app to feed them alarms like PLC faults, server-to-server collector error, and any other critical alerts that they need to know about, and that all comes through iFIX and Historian. Historian grabs the latest tag as real-time data and reporting.

The app is critical for them - especially when there's a rain event or a storm and they're not physically at the site. Their collections superintendent and other people at the plant are looking at the flows to understand: “Does this flow make sense? Did a pipeline break? Are we losing flow anywhere? Is this pump station running?” This was key for them during COVID as it allowed a lot of flexibility to check things from home. iFIX is at the core of all of this. They have APIs to connect to their app and their CMMs.

In the future, they plan to transition to high performance hybrid screens and apps where they can view in the same look and feel environment – all through one app.

"Velotic has been a great partner over the years in building all of this out… calling support or getting an engineer on the phone to help out, collaborating on new ideas… Velotic is always looking for feedback on what's actually happening with end users, and especially for us in the wastewater industry."