Water Treatment Plant PLC Replacement

Central Coast Water Authority (CCWA) operates a water treatment plant (WTP) with an output of 43-million-gallons per day and a 142-mile-long pipeline that provides drinking water to 14 retail water agencies in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. CCWA relies on a private data transferring communications network for water operations and administrative, SCADA, and security functions. Because the manufacturer no longer supports the PLC hardware that the system was based on, the products in CCWA’s system reached the end of their life cycle.

CCWA selected Cannon to provide design and project implementation for replacing the existing redundant Modicon Quantum PLC hardware at the WTP. Cannon’s scope of work included design for the construction phase and monitoring the project until completion. The full replacement of PLCs during CCWA’s annual shutdown was based on the design work provided by Cannon.

Along with the physical replacement of the PLCs, the old PLC program was converted from Modicon’s ProWorx software to the latest Modicon programming software, EcoStruxure Control Expert. Since the new PLC system was needed in a short period, an extensive bench test was required prior to replacement. Cannon developed a preliminary timeline, an anticipated test plan, and a project budget.