PMIP SCADA SYSTEM DESIGN, INSTALLATION AND INTEGRATION
Since 2012, T&T Construction, Inc. has been instrumental in designing and implementing a vast array of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the complex irrigation needs of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation District (PMIP).
These systems benefit PMIP in the following ways:
• Eliminating spills and stabilizing water levels by automatic coordination and control of a sequence of in-line regulators to match water supply to actual measured flows.
• Automatically and rapidly responding to extractions or rejections in demand to maintain water levels at the designed level in every relevant point in the system, improving and maintaining water service levels to farmers.
• Capturing flows using the water channel’s storage capacity to keep water in the channel, instead of losing it downstream.
• Using in-stream storage to provide short-term flow balancing downstream.
• Regulating the channel system according to the chosen operating strategy:
Water demand: Automatically coordinating the regulators so that water entering the network matches the water actually extracted downstream while maintaining a stable water level at the far downstream of the channel.
Water supply: Automatically coordinating the regulators so that a stable water level is maintained just above every regulator, while the water flow is varied at the top of the channel for predicted irrigation needs.
Phase one of the project covered 11 sites. Phase two added nineteen additional sites to the network. Due to the obvious advantages provided to PMIP by this work, the original project of $600,000 has grown to over $1.5 Million of total project completions to date.
The photos below depict the view from the PMIP SCADA communications tower, some of the system wiring, and examples of the Rubicon flume gates used in similar SCADA projects.
(click for larger image)
