Project Profile

SCADA, Networking, and Reporting Upgrade

City of Fresno Water Division

Customer Background

Cybersecurity is a mission-critical function for water utilities, impacting both operations and customer data protection. Cybersecure organizations stay ahead of risks and regularly upgrade software and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems to maintain active support contracts. The City of Fresno Water Division takes preventative measures not only through maintenance, but also by elevating their SCADA system and networking platform to the latest and greatest.

The City of Fresno (CoF) operates an expansive drinking water system that serves approximately 142,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers spanning 114 square miles. The Water Division manages and operates the city’s water system which encompasses various facilities for treating both ground and surface water as well as a distribution system that consists of a vast network of water mains, water service connections, fire hydrants, valves, and water meters. For over 15 years Enterprise Automation has partnered with the CoF and has been contracted for over $5 million in projects ranging from routine maintenance and urgent on-call support to major SCADA system transformation.

Project Background

The pending loss of product support and the emergence of pain points in their reporting system led the CoF to seek solutions. By installing newer hardware, software, and servers, CoF could take advantage of additional functions, fulfill cybersecurity requirements, and address inefficiencies in their reporting system. Being liberated from the demands of minor manual tasks would enable operators to dedicate more resources to resolving complex problems. To that end, CoF sought feedback from the end users of the legacy reporting software who requested a more effective way to maintain, update, and publish reports.

EA Solutions

The improvements implemented by EA for the CoF fortified cybersecurity measures, improved SCADA functionality, and enabled greater efficiency in reporting. To accomplish this, EA managed system-wide platform upgrades, a network architecture update, and the overhaul of reporting infrastructure.

Regular software updates and maintaining (or investing in) an active support contract are a crucial part of keeping systems secure. While using unsupported software, organizations lose the ability to upgrade the product and stop receiving preventative cybersecurity patches. This exposes cybersecurity risk to the entire system. The CoF proactively avoided such adverse outcomes by contracting EA to upgrade their SCADA system to the newest version and beyond that, transform it into a more powerful tool that works in harmony with their operations. In addition to keeping all key functionality, EA added new tools and took care to address even the smallest issues that bothered operators who used the legacy system. Throughout this process, EA accelerated their weekly tag and equipment update procedure in addition to speeding the startup of their AVEVA Plant SCADA system by more than 66%.

EA modernized CoF’s network to meet cybersecurity best practices and implemented network segmentation using Local Area Networks (LAN) and firewalls. A segmented network guards against cybersecurity threats because it allows selective and controlled communication between devices on the same physical network. This method also optimizes for performance within Operational Technology (OT) systems so critical traffic such as programmable logic controller (PLC) communications can be prioritized over less critical traffic such as access to historical data.

To construct and refine a system that made generating and navigating reports easier, EA invested a large portion of project hours to reporting. Reporting can often be an overlooked part of a technology refresh. Given that CoF is required to send water production reports to the state and monitor reports for troubleshooting, the automated generation, sending, and organization of reports saves significant time and effort. EA replaced the legacy reporting system with AVEVA Reports for Operations and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), equipping managers and operators to better leverage their process data.

To address the discontinuation of the historian and alarm software, EA found alternatives that offered higher capabilities and convenience. EA set up AVEVA Tier 1 Historian and Tier 2 Historian that would collect information from current and future plants and house all their data in one place. The historian’s customization features allow operators to make personalized reports that narrow priority objects and allow operators to check the status at a glance.

The CoF Water Division has made both major and incremental improvements to their automation system over the years and remains deeply invested in the sustainable maintenance and growth of their system. During this period, EA has become a trusted partner of CoF to envision their long-term strategy and to take a deliberate and cost-effective approach to maximize value from new technology. Even with the successful conclusion of this project, CoF continues to plan for expansions and enhancements that EA will be ready to execute.

Project Manager

Project Technical Lead

Key Insights

  • Upgraded SCADA system and sped up startup by over 66%
  • Implemented segmentation best practices across 17 networks
  • Utilized operator feedback to create an automated reporting system

Key Technologies

  • Plant SCADA 2023
  • AVEVA Historian
  • AVEVA Reports for Operation
  • SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
  • TopView Alarm and Notification Software