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PITTSBURGH (October 31, 2005) — The water and wastewater
industries are charged with protecting public health and safety
in the face of extreme weather events and security concerns, complying
with increasingly complex environmental regulations, and being good financial
stewards of public dollars. Being able to efficiently and expertly manage water
and wastewater treatment processes and systems plays an important role in enabling
municipalities to effectively address these challenges, and thereby best serve
their communities.
Emerson Process Management offers a broad portfolio of integrated
instrumentation and control solutions to help municipalities
navigate today’s complex water environment. Emerson’s
PlantWeb® digital
plant architecture leverages the Ovation® expert control
system, AMS™ Suite of predictive maintenance software applications,
intelligent field devices and asset optimization solutions that
reduce machinery operating costs and maximize the life of pumps,
motors and other rotating equipment.
Harnessing the
power of Emerson’s integrated PlantWeb technologies
gives municipalities the ability to integrate advanced control,
optimization and predictive maintenance functions, and therefore
avoid the substantial disadvantages of relying on disparate islands
of automation. These disadvantages include incompatibility among
systems, difficulty in maintaining aging systems due to the scarcity
and/or expense of spare parts, and the inability to expand systems
to meet the needs of growing population.
"Utilizing
Emerson’s PlantWeb digital plant architecture
with the Ovation control system makes it possible to operate plants
more efficiently, reduce risk and costs, and take advantage of
advanced control technology that facilitates the sharing of information
throughout the organization,” said Bob Yeager, president
of Emerson Process Management’s Power & Water Solutions
industry center. "Some of the largest cities in the country – including
Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Detroit, San Diego and
Sacramento – as well as smaller municipalities, trust Emerson
technologies to help ensure cleaner, safer water supplies, reduce
environmental hazards, and realize significant operational cost
savings.”
According to Yeager, the issue of public
trust broadly falls into three separate but related areas – Public
Health & Safety,
Public Investment and Environmental Compliance. “Only Emerson
offers the breadth and depth of water/wastewater automation and
analytical solutions that address all three critical areas,” he
said.
Protecting Public Health & Safety
Emerson solutions help municipalities protect the water supply
from threats posed by human nature … and Mother Nature.
The Ovation system’s embedded security features enable customers
to proactively address cyber security issues, such as system hacking,
and data integrity and verification. Emerson also helps customers
address security concerns through special services, such as security
patch monitoring and system security assessments.
In addition to
cyber security, the Ovation system can also play an important
role in augmenting a municipality’s existing
physical security efforts. Video security monitoring, for example,
can be integrated into the Ovation system to guard against potential
sabotage at the plant and remote locations, such as pumping stations.
At the device level, Emerson offers on-line analysis systems,
instruments, and sensors that help plants safeguard the water
infrastructure. The company’s intelligent field devices
like Fisher® digital
valves, Rosemount® transmitters, Micro Motion® Coriolis
flow and density meters, and Rosemount Analytical devices provide
continuous real-time health information to power AMS Suite predictive
maintenance applications. CSI Machinery Health™ Management
solutions help users reduce machinery operating costs and maximize
the life of pumps, motors and other rotating equipment.
Emerson’s Rosemount Analytical Water Quality System, for
example, is an online, multiparameter system that continuously
measures several critical water quality variables – such
as pH and ORP, conductivity, temperature, free chlorine and monochloramine,
oxygen and turbidity – at strategic points in the treatment
and distribution system. A change in these parameters can signal
to the plant operator that a contaminant event has occurred so
appropriate action can be taken. This solution provides constant
measurement of water quality, and detects deviations in expected
values, a critical step toward ensuring safety and quality of
water treatment and distribution systems.
"This
kind of monitoring makes up a crucial early warning system that
enables plant personnel to quickly take action that safeguards
the well being of the public and the environment,” said
Yeager.
Mother Nature also wreaks havoc on water
and wastewater systems. Combined Sewer Systems, for example,
can overflow untreated sewage into waterways during heavy rains,
posing health, environmental, and regulatory consequences.
Integrating weather monitoring capabilities into the Ovation
system enables municipalities to take proactive steps to minimize
the impact of impending wet weather events. Ovation system alarms
notify operators of approaching rain, enabling them to initiate
wet weather containment measures, such as inflatable dams, basins
or tunnels, to temporarily divert/hold excess water and eliminate
or minimize undesirable overflows.
Protecting Public Investment
Public utilities and municipalities are held accountable for
the judicious use of public funds. GASB No. 34 (Government Accounting
Standards Board Statement No. 34, “Basic Financial Statements – and
Management’s Discussion and Analysis – for State and
Local Governments) illustrates the increasing accountability municipalities
face. This financial regulation requires governments to define
the value of all assets and report depreciation and other expenses.
As many municipalities invest public funds to automate their treatment
facilities, water distribution systems and wastewater collection
systems, management of those automation assets becomes an important
element of compliance to this regulation.
This is compounded by
the increasing pressure to do more with less. PlantWeb’s
network of predictive intelligence makes it possible to detect
process and equipment problems even before they occur. By arming
maintenance personnel with such equipment information as instrument
health, valve cycle totalization, oxidation, chemical monitoring
and control, and the health of expensive capital machinery such
as large pumps and motors, municipalities are equipped to move
from reactive to proactive management.
"Access to
this information keeps plant assets well managed so crews can
focus only on equipment that really needs attention,” said
Yeager. “This valuable insight translates into bottom-line
savings, including reduced maintenance costs.”
Emerson’s
SmartProcess® plant optimization software
offers additional opportunities for cost savings and operational
efficiencies. SmartProcess modules incorporate fuzzy logic, neural
networks and model-based predictive controls, as well as other
tools developed to meet the needs of the water and wastewater
industries. The SmartProcess Economic Optimizer optimizes water
treatment and wastewater treatment processes to minimize costs,
reduce equipment wear and tear, and balance tradeoffs, such as
low and high flow. This solution can be applied to many key areas
of operation within the plant and throughout the water system,
including chemical usage (modeling chemical usage for acids and
bases for process utilization to adjust the pH ensures the most
efficient – and therefore
cost effective – use of chemicals) and pump optimization
(optimizing the timing and location of pump usage reduces equipment
wear and tear, and minimizes electricity costs).
Additionally, the SmartProcess Global Performance Advisor
monitors and benchmarks equipment performance against design
specifications. This package provides operators of water and
wastewater facilities with the ability to quickly identify,
then address, problematic areas, which then translates into
improved equipment performance and reduced operating costs.
Maintaining Environmental/Regulatory Compliance
Today, water and wastewater industries are facing a growing number
of complex regulations. In addition to financial reporting requirements,
such as GASB No. 34, there are increasingly complex environmental
regulations that must be addressed. The EPA’s Office of Wastewater
Management has added numerous programs and policies to promote
compliance with the Clean Water Act – all of which have implications
for environmental reporting. In addition, Title IV of the Bioterrorism
Act (Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response
Act) of 2002 will have an impact for years to come. This act stipulates
that each community water system conduct a vulnerability assessment
of its system to a terrorist attack or other intentional act that
disrupts the supply of drinking water, and prepare/revise and maintain
an emergency response plan.
While diverse, these financial and
environmental regulations have one thing in common: they all
call for access to operational data to fulfill the reporting
requirements. In organizations where financial and operational
information resides on separate – and
often incompatible – systems, it is difficult and time
consuming to obtain the necessary combination of information
required for reporting. Emerson’s Ovation system seamlessly
integrates information not only at the plant level but also on
a district-wide basis, streamlining the reporting process for
additional, measurable benefits.
Emerson:
Trusted Technologies, Proven Solutions
Given the current environment of competing resources, priorities
and pressures faced by the water and wastewater industries, municipalities
will continue turn to Emerson’s comprehensive, turnkey automation,
analytical and optimization solutions to safeguard the public’s
trust, according to Yeager. “Emerson is committed to leveraging
our broad portfolio of leading-edge control, analytical and optimization
technologies to meet the industry’s complex operational,
environmental and financial demands, protect valuable environmental
resources, and, above all, safeguard public health and safety,” he
said.
About
Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com),
an Emerson business, is a leader in helping businesses automate
their production, processing and distribution in the power,
water and wastewater treatment, chemical, oil and gas, refining,
pulp and paper, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and other
industries.
Emerson's Power & Water
Solutions division (www.emersonprocess-powerwater.com)
is a global supplier of advanced distributed process control
and information systems. The Pittsburgh-based company is a recognized
leader in developing plant-wide process control solutions for
the power generation, water treatment and wastewater treatment
industries. Power & Water
Solutions plays a key role in the Emerson mission of combining
superior products and technology with industry-specific engineering,
consulting, project management and maintenance services. Emerson
brands include PlantWeb® , Ovation®, SmartProcess®,
Fisher® , Micro Motion® , Rosemount®,
Mobrey®, Daniel®, DeltaV™, and AMS™Suite.
About
Emerson
Emerson (NYSE: EMR), based in St. Louis, is a global
leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide
innovative solutions to customers through its network power,
process management, industrial automation, climate technologies,
and appliance and tools businesses. Sales in fiscal 2004
were $15.6 billion. For more information, visit www.GoToEmerson.com.
# # #
Ovation, SureService, SmartProcess, PlantWeb,
Fisher, Micro Motion, Rosemount, Mobrey, Daniel, AMS™ Suite
and DeltaV™ are
marks of Emerson Process Management. Other marks are the property
of their respective owners.
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