Faribault Public Works Department

BACKGROUND

The city of Faribault, MN needed to improve and modernize its Wastewater Collection and Treatment Plant. Following an evaluation of the entire plant, it was determined that the project would include a major upgrade to all electrical components, including PLC’s and SCADA system programming.

LOCATION

Faribault is approximately 50 miles south of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Public Works Department of the city government is responsible for the wastewater collection and treatment for the city’s 23,000 residents. The plant treats approximately 4 million gallons of biosolids annually.

SCOPE

As a key subcontractor, PRIMEX worked in tandem with the electrical contractor on engineering and commissioning the upgrades to the electrical, instrumentation and SCADA equipment. A thin client architecture was utilized to provide scalability and management. Some of the critical upgrades installed included: seven PLC’s, Motor Control Centers on a DeviceNet bus (New and Retrofits) and 28 separately enclosed VFD controllers.

Critical to this project was the Wonderware System Platform that PRIMEX was able to deploy inside the plant on virtualized server hardware. The city expects 4-5 years out of their servers and virtualization allows them to replace hardware rather than upgrading SCADA software licenses saving them money in the long run.

As part of the complete integration services provided, PRIMEX was tasked with overall system documentation which included a comprehensive description of operation along with application programming and overall system responsibility.

SPECIAL FEATURES

PRIMEX was able to deploy Wonderware System Platform across the entire plant. Redundant communications links were used to ensure all communications operated as desired. This led to PRIMEX being retained as the SCADA Integrator for the City.

MORE DETAILS

OWNER/CLIENT
City of Faribault, Minnesota

KEY CONTACT
Steve McDowell, Plant Manager

PROJECT START – END
August 2009 – December 2011

PROJECT COST
$1,706,000

KEY PERSONNEL
Peter Bachman, Programmer

SERVICES PROVIDED:
• Project Management
• Engineering
• Programming Programmable Logic Controllers and SCADA applications
• Network Configuration Services
• Virtualization of Servers using HyperV
• Operator Training
• Commissioning