Optimization of the water supply for Eimbeckhausen

Wasserbeschaffungsverband (WBV) Eimbeckhausen has two wells, from which 180,000 cubic meters of water are extracted per year, as well as an elevated tank, two booster stations, and a distribution chamber. In 2005, the team at WBV Eimbeckhausen concluded that a large part of the installed electrical engineering needed to be modernized.

During the upgrade, the central controller was moved to the switchgear house. From here, all remote stations are connected to the control system. To ensure that as few replacement parts as possible need to be kept in stock, the team at WBV Eimbeckhausen insisted that uniform components be installed everywhere. Connecting the wells and elevated tank to the switchgear house presented a challenge. Only old cables were available and these needed to be reused, as it is very expensive to lay new cables. If sections of the plant could not be reached via a dedicated cable, communication needed to be secure.

A control system was also installed in the switchgear house so that all processes could be recorded visually and the data stored. One problem mentioned by the operator was remote access. In the past, if volunteers wanted to view values or adjust them, they usually had to drive out to the switchgear house. Since everyone at WBV Eimbeckhausen works there on a voluntary basis, the time it takes to perform this work needed to be reduced to a minimum.

The team at WBV Eimbeckhausen opted to use an ILC 170 ETH 2TX Inline controller as the control system. With the TC EXTENDER 2001 ETH, it is possible to implement broadband Ethernet applications on existing cables. The device supports two- and four-wire in-house cables, but not the public telephone network. Plant sections that could not be connected via a dedicated cable are integrated into the system by DSL connection. FL mGuard security appliances protect the IP data links against unauthorized access.

Fourteen years on from the original upgrade of the plant, it was now particularly apparent during visualization that the PC and monitor needed to be replaced. The team at WBV Eimbeckhausen therefore reached out to Phoenix Contact in 2019 to inquire about a potential solution. To reduce the amount of driving involved, employees needed to be able to access the plant via a mobile end device. Following a cost/benefit analysis, the Resylive portal was chosen. Plants that are visualized here send their process data to the higher-level data center via DSL/GPRS/LTE. To ensure that the data is processed in the correct chronological order, a remote control protocol is used to transmit the data between the remote station and the control system. The data is then forwarded either via a private APN of the cellular provider or an encrypted VPN channel. Phoenix Contact is responsible for processing the data. The plant screens were designed in consultation with WBV Eimbeckhausen.

Rights can be assigned individually, which allows the solution to be operated and controlled by various users. The user can simply access the system using a web browser. Resylive enables employees with various smart devices to enjoy the full range of functions available, even when on the go. It features a vector-based display and therefore adjusts automatically to the display size of the relevant device. An app is also available for iOS and Android. Data is not lost in the event of a connection failure, as it can be buffered for several days. Resylive automatically updates the data the next time the station is connected.