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Study of SCADA based Existing Water Treatment Plant-GAWSS Phase-I in

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DOI: 10.1109/IPRECON52453.2021.9640800

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 Study of SCADA based Existing Water Treatment Plant-
GAWSS Phase-I in Mizoram, India
2021 IEEE International Power and Renewable Energy Conference (IPRECON) | 978-1-6654-0137-1/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IPRECON52453.2021.9640800
C Rohmingtluanga Dr Subir Datta
Dept. of Electrical Engineering Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Mizoram University Mizoram University
Aizawl, India Aizawl, India
rta54321@gmail.com subirnerist@gmail.com
Abstract— Mizoram is a hilly state in India and unlike other
states most of the water pumping is done through high head
pumping, hence providing available drinking water throughout
the year is a government priority. Under Public Health
Engineering department, there is a Greater Aizawl Water
Supply schemes phase I (GAWSS p-I) implemented in 1988 with
a capacity of 10.8 MLD of treated water in the clear water
reservoir. This water supply scheme consists of four major
components :(1) Intake Pump House near Tlawng river, (2)
Water Treatment Plant (WTP) with clear water pump house,
(3) Intermediate Pumping Station (IPS) at Lawipu & (4) Clear
Water Reservoir at Tuikhuahtlang.
SCADA system has been implemented in the existing water
treatment plant (GAWSS p-I) in 2020 generally for monitoring
and improving the plant efficiency. Data such as Water quality
(using pH, turbidity and chlorine analyser) and water quantity
at each pumping stations (using electromagnetic flowmeter and
ultrasonic level and pressure analyser) are collected
continuously through programmable logic controller (PLC) and
monitored online from the central SCADA station. This paper
describes study of the whole utility process of SCADA based
WTP in Aizawl and how the backwash scheduling is done using
SCADA system.
Keywords— GAWSS Phase I, SCADA, Raw and treated
water quality, raw and treated water quantity. Backwash
scheduling
I. INTRODUCTION
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
systems are normally used in industry and plant so as to
monitor and control the whole process. It can be done through
secured and efficient centralized computer-controlled
systems which can be accessed by local and remote mode.
The SCADA based (WTP) helps us to identify existing or
emerging water quantity, quality and water loss problems.
Data and information collected from the field equipment are
used to improve water supply schemes to overcome the
problems associated with existing WTP.
The most important goals of implementation of SCADA
systems for WTP and water supply systems are optimization
of the plant process, maintain good water quality and
reduction of water losses [1-2]. Currently most of the existing
978-1-6654-0137-1/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: VISVESVARAYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Downloaded on February 11,2022 at 16:08:39 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Prof. Nidul Sinha
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
NIT Silchar
Assam, India
nidul.sinha@gmail.com
WTP are operated and maintained manually using
manpower-field staffs. Moreover, water quality and water
quantity are also being processed and monitored by manual
laboratory practices. However, this may lead to inaccurate
readings and slow processing outcome of the WTP.
Apart from this, seasonal change in the quality of raw
water intake at WTP results in necessity of frequent filtration
of the filter beds. This is also done manually without having
a set point for timing of filtration. This manual process may
further result in poor filtration and malfunctioning of the
filtration plant process [3-5]. It is reported in many studies
that most of the mechanical Loss of Head (LOH) monitoring
equipment installed for filter bed lasts only for a short period
of time and proper maintenance is required for having a good
LOH system [6-7].
Therefore, improvement and up gradation of existing WTP
is highly required by implementing real time control and
monitoring of SCADA systems [8-10]. In this paper, study
for implementation of SCADA for Greater Aizawl Water
Supply System phase I (GAWSS p-I) is done and the
following points are observed for the existing Water
Treatment plant.
• GAWSS-I located at Lawipu and Tlawng (Aizawl,
India), although renovated over the years, it has pipes
and pumps which are worn out and equipment which are
outdated.
• The equipment requires replacement or upgradation as
some of them have become non-functional.
• The data collected from the systems can be inaccurate or
null and is in serious need of an upgrade.
• The water level on all pumps is manually measured using
a thread, because of this the accuracy level is very low.
• Flow meters at the moment are not installed in any of the
pipelines. It was also observed that new electromagnetic
flow meter cannot be installed in certain lines due to
inadequate spaces.
 Figure 1. Architecture of SCADA system in GAWSS phase I

• pH, level, turbidity and chlorine level, despite being II. SCADA SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
measured regularly are imprecise as a result of manual
intervention. The SCADA system architecture shown in Figure 1
• Filtration process at the Filter house is done manually by consists of five stations each having PLC, HMI (Human
physical observations and the mechanical Loss of Head Machine Interface), RTU (Remote terminal unit), analyser
(LOH) monitoring devise is not working, because of this panel, sensors and UPS battery backup with isolation
efficiency of the filtration process is very low. transformer. The central SCADA system located at
• Currently, most of the data are collected manually at an Dihmunzawl serves as the master SCADA station, each
average interval of every 10 minutes 24/7 depending on station is interlinked with each other using optical fibre and
the water conditions and vice versa. These measurements GSM/GPRS device as shown in Figure 1. The following
are inaccurate and time-consuming resulting in a hurdle components are installed in SCADA system
for the department as it involves huge man power.
1) Electromagnetic flow meter
From the above findings and observations, SCADA 2) Open channel flow meter
system was implemented in GAWSS p-I and This paper 3) Pressure transmitter
mainly discusses about design of the SCADA system for each 4) pH sensor
stage of GAWSS phase -I including backwash scheduling. It 5) Level meter
can be seen that SCADA system serves a vital purpose and 6) Turbidity sensor
bring a huge improvement for the existing WTP 7) Chlorine sensor
8) Energy meter
This paper has been organized as follows: SCADA system 9) Pressure Transmitter
architecture in GAWSS phase I and SCADA system 10) PLC with HMI & GSM modem
applications in GAWSS phase I are presented in section-2, 11) SCADA station with PC system
and section-3 respectively. In section-4, Implementation of 12) Optical fibre cable
backwash scheduling is discussed. Finally, the conclusions 13) Online UPS with stabilizer system
are drawn in section-5. 14) Internet facilities

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 Flow meter monitors the flow rate and flow quantity of B. Water Treatment Plant (WTP)
water in the pipelines. Flow meter serves three purposes: viz.
to monitor (i) the flow rate, (ii) health of the pipe lines and The WTP of Phase I is shown in Figure 3. Raw water from
(iii) water losses between outlet of the pump house and intake is further pumped to WTP for treatment and filtration.
delivery at the reservoir. Pressure Transmitter measures the WTP consist of Clariflocculator, Filter house, backwash tank,
amount of pressure at the pump output and pipeline. The pH, Chemical house, clear water sump, and clear water pump
turbidity and chlorine sensor analyse the quality of water at house. Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) such as Analyzer (pH,
intake, WTP and reservoir so as to indicate the quality of raw Chlorine and Turbidity) for raw and treated water,
water and treated water. The energy meter shows the electromagnetic flow meter, open channel flow meter, level
electrical parameters viz, Current, Voltage, Power factor and meter, energy meter and pressure transmitter are installed to
power consumption of each pump. Level detector were also monitor WTP process through PLC and HMI screen,
installed to monitor water quantity at sump, reservoir, filter Backwash scheduling of WTP is implemented in WTP
bed and backwash tank of the Water Treatment plant. PLC
(with HMI and GSM modem) collect, transfer and process
data between SCADA station and field equipment, UPS with
isolation transformer is provided for each PLC and SCADA
PC so as to prevent the system from surges and voltage
fluctuations, Main SCADA station consist of Personal
computer and big screen acting as a master station, Optical
fibre and GSM modem is used as a communication media
between each PLCs and lastly, Internet facility is provided for
online remote monitoring, troubleshooting and remote access
of the SCADA system.

III. SCADA SYSTEM APPLICATON

The Greater Aizawl Water Supply scheme phase I
(GAWSS p-I) consists of (i) Intake for raw water pumping,
consisting of three vertical turbine (VT) pump-set located
near Tlawng river, (ii) Clariflocculator, (iii) Filter house
consisting of four filter beds, (iv) Chemical house for chlorine
dosing, (v) Clear Water Pump house with two electrical
motor pump-set and two diesel engine driven pump-set. (vi)
Intermediate pumping station (IPS) located at 2.4 km from
the Clear water pump house and (vii) main reservoir located
at 4.82 km from IPS.
A. Intake
Figure 3. Water Treatment Plant
C. Intermediate Pumping Station
The Intermediate Pumping Station (IPS) located at
Lawipu receives treated water from the main WTP. IPS act
as a booster for pumping water from Tlawng to main
reservoir located at Tuikhuahtlang. RTUs such as Level
meter, energy meter, electromagnetic flow meter and
pressure transmitter are installed in IPS as shown in Figure 4.
GSM modem is used as a communication media for sending
and receiving data between IPS and SCADA station.

The Intake of Phase-I is located near Tlawng river with

three vertical turbine pump-set for raw water pumping. For
SCADA system, Energy meter, pressure transmitter,
electromagnetic flow meter and PLC panel with HMI are
installed at the pump house. All signals from the RTUs are
fed to main SCADA station using Optical fibre. Figure 2
shows the SCADA screen for raw water Intake near Tlawng
river.

Figure 4. Intermediate Pumping Station

D. Reservoir

The main reservoir located at Tuikhuahtlang consists of

two main reservoirs coming from phase I and phase II of
Greater Aizawl Water Supply schemes. Electromagnetic flow
Figure 2. Intake meter, level meter and analyzer panel are installed so as to
measure the clear water quantity and quality. All data are

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 collected and processed through PLC and further transferred
to the main SCADA station at Dihmunzawl through
GSM/GPRS modem as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Reservoir Figure 6. Filter bed

IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF BACKWASH SYSTEM
Backwash scheduling gives timing for backwash in the
filtration process so as to improve the filtration and maintain
health of the filter bed. Old Mechanical LOH method used in
the existing WTP are rusted and malfunction, due to this,
backwash scheduling is implemented in SCADA system so
as to understand timing for backwash in the filtration process.
Basically, it is calculated based on the set point given for the
installed equipment such as Level meter, open channel flow
meter and turbidity value in between Clariflocculator and
filter house. Backwash timer is triggered when the water
parameter reaches the set points and duty personnel in the
SCADA station acknowledged and proceed further for
backwash operation. [11-12].
B. Backwash Scheduling
The main objective of backwash operation is to perform
cleaning of the filter bed as illustrated in figure 7. In order to
operate backwash, Different set point for filter bed level,
Backwash tank level and out flow rate has been applied
through HMI and SCADA station as shown in table 1. Before
backwash operation is initiated the program will first check
for the above available set point data from the filter bed, if all
set point constraints are met in the SCADA program the
backwash operation will be initiated by closing inlet and the
outlet valve and open the backwash valve, this will allow
water from the backwash tank to pass through filter media in
reverse manner for further backwash operation. Apart from
this, air blower will be operated for producing scour air,
which contribute a very important role in backwash
operation. however, operation of air blower is not shown in
the figure.

A. Filtration concept of the Water Treatment Plant

Generally, the Water Treatment Plant consist of N number

of filter beds for filtering the clarified water from the
Clariflocculator, GAWSS phase I consist of four numbers of
filter bed inside the filter house, clarified water at inlet is
filtered through filter media and clean water from the bottom
of the filter bed is collected to the clear water sump through
an open channel water line. A typical filter bed is shown in
figure 6 to illustrate the functions of the filter bed at GAWSS
phase I.

The Ultrasonic level meter installed at the filter bed and

backwash tank measures the water level for each tank, a
typical set point range is given for level meter from the
SCADA station so as to monitor the process. At the same
time, open channel flow meter measures the rate of out flow
from the filter bed, set point is also given for the flow rate of
the treated water outlet. When the plant is operated within the
set point range no backwash process activated from the main
SCADA station. It can be seen that during normal operational
period the inlet valve and the outlet valve are open and
backwash valve is closed.
Figure 7. Backwash operation
Figure 8 shows the flow chart for backwash operation
using SCADA system, initially the program will check for the
Backwash tank level to see whether the water level is above
the setpoint values or not, if it is below the set point value the
program will give signal to start the pump so as to refill
backwash tank till the set point is reached. If the condition

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 meets the set point value it will bring forth the program for After implementation of backwash scheduling, average
checking the level of filter bed counting from bed no 1 till Level Transmitter reading of Reservoir for the month of May
bed no n, and stop if count equals n. Further, if level of filter and June is compared ash shown in Table 2, the result seems
bed is greater than the set point, the program will check for to show improvement in Treated water quantity, and the same
the filter bed open channel flow rate by comparing with the graph is shown in figure no 9.
given set point, if the flow rate value is below the set point
the program will initiate signal for back wash operation by TABLE 2. AVERAGE LT READINGS OF RESERVOIR
sending Alarm to the filter section in SCADA screen, if the
condition does not meet the set points, program will return May June
back to the loop search as shown in the figure 8. Average LT Average LT
Date Date
reading/day reading/day
TABLE 1. SET POINTS 1-May-20 1.897 1-Jun-20 2.324
2-May-20 1.101 2-Jun-20 1.772
3-May-20 1.235 3-Jun-20 1.966
Description SP-1 SP-2 SP- 3
4-May-20 1.684 4-Jun-20 1.647
(min) (optimum) (maximum)
5-May-20 1.654 5-Jun-20 1.714
L-BWT- SP 0.2 m 1.8 m 2m 6-May-20 1.812 6-Jun-20 2.053
7-May-20 1.234 7-Jun-20 2.997
L-FTB – SP 1m 2.4 m 2.8 m 8-May-20 0.789 8-Jun-20 2.426
9-May-20 0.234 9-Jun-20 1.979
FB-OFR – SP 20 m3/h 25m3/h 30 m3/h 10-May-20 0.216 10-Jun-20 1.772
11-May-20 1.025 11-Jun-20 1.511
12-May-20 1.657 12-Jun-20 1.983
After all conditions are met, SCADA will indicate timing 13-May-20 1.456 13-Jun-20 1.695
for backwash to the operator by initiating alarm and display 14-May-20 1.102 14-Jun-20 1.727
blinking of filter bed on the screen, this will allow the 15-May-20 1.203 15-Jun-20 2.364
operator to understand timing for backwash. In order to 16-May-20 1.564 16-Jun-20 2.278
acknowledge the backwash process, the operator may click 17-May-20 2.013 17-Jun-20 2.193
acknowledge button so as to stop the alarm and blinking, else 18-May-20 1.897 18-Jun-20 2.123
19-May-20 0.165 19-Jun-20 1.771
the alarm will keep revert back to the loop till the backwash
20-May-20 0.158 20-Jun-20 2.431
is over. The set point values for each minimum, optimum and
21-May-20 1.325 21-Jun-20 2.551
maximum values are shown in table no 1. Where, L-BWT-SP 22-May-20 1.456 22-Jun-20 2.675
means Level of backwash tank set point, L-FTB-SP means 23-May-20 1.987 23-Jun-20 2.934
level of filter bed setpoint and FB-OFR-SP means Filter bed 24-May-20 2.021 24-Jun-20 2.557
open channel flow rate set point 25-May-20 1.254 25-Jun-20 2.149
26-May-20 1.564 26-Jun-20 1.906
27-May-20 1.253 27-Jun-20 2.169
28-May-20 1.378 28-Jun-20 2.564
29-May-20 2.089 29-Jun-20 2.364
30-May-20 1.825 30-Jun-20 1.894
Average LT 1.365 Average LT 2.149

V. CONCLUSION

Implementation of SCADA system for the existing WTP

leads to optimization of the plant process and improvement
in the efficiency of the whole system. Further, data collected
from PLCs can be formulated and derived to useful functions
of a particular activity of the plant process, the backwash
scheduling scheme derived for optimizing the LOH problems
in filter bed has not been seen and used in other water
treatment plant so far, this scheduling scheme is found to be
improving the efficiency of the filter process as well as the
whole system performance while reducing activities of
manpower deployment during the backwash activities.
Similarly, many other useful functions can be formulated by
gathering information from the field equipment to optimize
the plant performance as well as the operational costs.

One of the main drawbacks of SCADA system is

Figure 8. Backwash Flow chart requirement of skilled technical personnel and field staffs for
operation & maintenance. Troubleshooting and spare parts of

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 3.5
3
2.5
Average LT in m
1.5
0.5
0
0 5 10
Figure 9. Water Level May Vs June.
the field equipment requires huge operational and
maintenance costs. Since SCADA is a combination of
sensitive equipment and software packages, it demands
proper monitoring, maintenance and care for efficient
operation. Apart from the above points, one of the main
problems is poor internet connectivity and unstable network
in hilly areas, this results in infrequent feedback and data loss.
VI. REFERENCES
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Authorized licensed use limited to: VISVESVARAYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Downloaded on February 11,2022 at 16:08:39 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
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