The City of Decatur Wastewater Treatment plant in Texas includes a polishing pond and effluent discharge basin, both of which can be overcome with algae growth depending on weather and environmental conditions throughout the year. At times, the algae overgrowth would plug areas of these systems and restrict or block the flow from the polishing pond and effluent basin, which sit approximately 300 yards from each other. A HydroRanger 200 with Echomax transducer has already been used to monitor the effluent flow from the wastewater treatment plant and record the effluent basin level. The HydroRanger data was recorded so the staff would be aware of any changes that could indicate the potential of a blockage or loss of flow. It’s also worth noting that the Hy- droRanger 200 was not connected to any SCADA and, as such, required a physical visit to manually read the totalizer and other process information from this instrument. These values were read daily for reporting purpose

• Siemens presented the possible benefits that could be achieved if a digital application such as SITRANS store IQ was implemented for continuous remote monitoring. SITRANS store IQ works with any manufacturer’s instrumentation and allows operators to monitor key data that normally requires physical visits by personnel. Sie-mens offered a system that could connect, monitor and transmit data to enable more efficient operations. In this case it would automate the manual data gathering process, which included taking readings from the HydroRanger 200 every day at 8:00AM. This information is critical as it is reported to the regulatory agency each month. 
• A new hardware system developed by Siemens EIS utilized the HydroRanger 200 RS485 MODBUS RTU port and transmitted the data via the Siemens MindSphere cloud platform to the web-enabled Siemens SITRANS store IQ App. The application was configured to extract specific holding registers and meet  the remote monitoring requirements of the customer. 

Further products, which has been implemented:  • Siemens SITRANS store IQ Enclosure (16”x12”x8”) • Siemens 24 VDC Power Supply • SIMATIC S7-1200 Controller • RS485 MODBUS Communication Module • Siemens IOT2040 MindConnect Gateway • Siemens SCALANCE M876-4 Mobile Wireless Router 

Decatur, Texas