A Sierra Wireless Remote Monitoring Solution

BACKGROUND

CH2M is a global engineering firm that provides consulting, design, construction and operations services for corporations and federal, state and local governments. The company is privately held by its 26,000 employees.

CUSTOMER CRITICAL CHALLENGE � Despite abundant rainfall, Saipan’s water supply is insufficient to serve the needs

of residents due to 70% non-revenue water. Saipan Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC) asked CH2M for help – to improve monitoring of the water system and to improve operational efficiencies. CUC had no water monitoring system in place to help them identify problems.

SOLUTION � CH2M provided an integrated technology solution with a Schneider Electric

programmable logical controller and Sierra Wireless gateways to install a remotely manageable monitoring solution for CUC.

BENEFITS � CUC can now monitor water operations in the pilot area of their system and address

problems immediately.

� Being able to remotely monitor the system saves sending field crews to investigate and is helping to reduce the amount of water lost.

CH2M Improves Water Management for Saipan with Sierra Wireless® Gateways

Case Study

“We work with many partners to deliver the engineering services we provide, and we’ve worked with Sierra Wireless on similar projects in Dallas and Fort Worth. The reason we keep choosing their gateways is because they truly are the most rugged we’ve seen, and we can rely on them. We can deploy our integrated systems quickly, and with confidence

that communication approach using Sierra Wireless technology will work in any environment.”

Ken ThompsonDeputy Director

Intelligent Water Systems

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Business ChallengeLocated 120 miles north of Guam, Saipan is the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, the most westerly territory of the United States. With a population of over 40,000, the island boasts sandy beaches, an offshore coral reef and Mount Tapochau, a limestone covered mountain. The island’s primary source of revenue in the past was associated with the garment business, but recently has primarily come from tourism.

Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC) is a state government corporation that operates the electric power, water and wastewater services on the three main islands of the Commonwealth – Saipan, Tinian and Rota. At the time, CUC had few controls in the system and had no means of monitoring or explaining water loss and operational inefficiencies. CUC recognized they needed a plan and some real-time controls if they were going to be able to serve the population’s needs for fresh water. And as CUC does not have any SCADA communications system in place on Saipan, they recognized the benefit of deploying a cellular based communications solution.

Sierra Wireless AirLink SolutionCUC contracted CH2M, a global engineering company, to help them reduce water losses and improve the efficiency of their operations on the island. CH2M proposed a pilot project where they would isolate and demonstrate how water monitoring could reduce water loss or non-revenue water.

CH2M installed programmable logic controllers in an isolated section of thewater supply network, at 16 wells, 1 pump station and 2 reservoirs. The PLCs are programmed to measure multiple operational parameters at each facility, and Sierra Wireless gateways were installed alongside the PLCs to send information from the PLCs back to a human machine interface (HMI). The gateways send information over the LTE cellular network back to a host interface, enabling CUC to understand how water is flowing through the system and when problems are occurring in near real time.

About Sierra Wireless Sierra Wireless is building the Internet of Things with intelligent wireless solutions that empower organizations to innovate in the connected world. We offer the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of 2G, 3G, and 4G embedded modules and gateways, seamlessly integrated with our secure cloud and connectivity services. OEMs and enterprises worldwide trust our innovative solutions to get their connected products and services to market faster. Sierra Wireless has more than 950 employees globally and operates R&D centers in North America, Europe, and Asia.

For more information, visit www.sierrawireless.com.

Sierra Wireless, the Sierra Wireless logo, AirLink, and the red wave design are trademarks of Sierra Wireless. Other registered trademarks that appear on this brochure are the property of the respective owners. © 2015 Sierra Wireless, Inc. 2016.05.16

ResultsThe installation was 80 % completed in a week in July 2015 and everything was operational. Unfortunately, a typhoon hit the island later that month, and destroyed much of the infrastructure. This is now being rebuilt, and will be fully up and running by May, 2016. Once it is, it’s expected that CH2M will expand beyond the pilot project to install similar infrastructure across the entire island for the water system and ultimately for the entire wastewater system.

“The Typhoon has taken out more than 1000 power poles, right at their roots, flooded the main power plant, and damaged many of the water system components, so the rebuild has been time-consuming. But the communications infrastructure has stayed up and running, and we are now able to resume normal operations shortly”, said John Riegel, Director of Engineering, CUC.