Paso Robles Wastewater Collections SCADA Upgrade

The City of Paso Robles’ wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was experiencing communication failures between lift stations and their operational headquarters due to outdated system controllers and radio communication technology. The City’s wastewater collection system, which is comprised of 140 miles of sewer lines and 14 sewage lift stations, collects an average flow of 2.5 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage for treatment and disposal.

The 14 sewage lift stations operating the system were equipped with SCADA systems over a decade old. When the City conducted a full assessment, they found that nearly all SCADA hardware, including PLCs and radios, had become obsolete or reached the end of their useful life. This prompted the City to fully upgrade the wastewater collections SCADA system to modern, reliable, and widely available technology. After a recent success with SCADA upgrades at their WWTP, they requested the same server platform be installed for the wastewater collections upgrade.

Cannon was selected to provide design-build services to modernize and standardize 13 of the lift stations. Upgrades to the wastewater collection SCADA System included system design, procurement of materials, panel fabrication and software development, installation and implementation, and post-installation support. Cannon implemented GE MDS Orbit radios at each of the 13 sites that were installed, validated, and commissioned using cellular functionality. Cooling units and power monitoring units were also used at the remote lift station sites to communicate significant amounts of power data to the PLC and the SCADA system. This project allowed the City to validate the quality and reliability of the utility power at each lift station and access valuable historical power data.