This page is dedicated to our customers. Thanks to their insightful guidance over the years, we have been able to significantly advance the state of the art in wireless telemetry and control. From features such as the Portable C3 Operator Interface, Coded-Pager-Alarm Notifications, and Field-Programmability to the Remote-Dialup-Access Server... behind every great feature was a great idea and suggestion. The vision of our customers has been the driving force behind the progress. Operators like Mr. Steve Fletcher of Washington County (IL) Water Company - a National Rural Water Association Board Member, Mr. Greg Bates of Jersey County (IL) Rural Water - an Illinois Rural Water Association Board Member, Mr. Jim Green of Consolidated Water Service - one of the largest contract operators in Illinois, and Mr. Dana Gnann of Dallas Rural Water, Ms. Sandy Kuhn of Bond-Madison Water, and Mr. Thad Staley of NE Mount Vernon Water - some of the most conscientious and respected operators in the business.

Civil Engineers like 1999 Consulting Engineers Council of Illinois Merit Award winners Mr. Dean Heneghan and Mr. Wally Cox (Heneghan & Associates - Jerseyville and Centralia, IL) whose experience stems from serving over 40 rural and municipal utilities and Mr. John Klingner (Klingner & Associates - Quincy, IL) who serves on the Liaison Committee between the National Consulting Engineers Council and Rural Development and consults for over 40 rural and municipal utilities. As we start into the 21st century, we remain committed to succeed in our striving effort to realize your vision of what a wireless telemetry and control system can and should be.

Jim Mimlitz Navionics Research, Inc.

Customer Spotlight - Washington County Water Company

From time to time, we would like to take this space to highlight some of our projects. Today, our spotlight is on Washington County Water Company. Based in Nashville, IL, WCWC supplies water to over 3200 rural customers within a 2500 square mile region through a network of over 1100 miles of water main, 5 elevated tanks, and 5 pumping stations. Now, with the installation of their new Navionics WiSTAR wireless telemetry and control system, the operation of their entire distribution system is running at peak efficiency, and all performance data is available with the click of a mouse at their office in Nashville.

"Peer-To-Peer" Control

In Navionics' trademark "Peer-to-Peer" fashion, a wireless network of smart RTUs was installed at each of the 5 remote elevated tanks and 5 remote pump stations, along with a C3 Operator Interface at the Office and a PC3 Operator Interface in the vehicle of the operator, Mr. Steve Fletcher. Before installation, a radio path analysis and design was performed using the latest digitized terrain model from the US Geological Survey, the results of which yielded the proper selection of radio frequency band, antenna elevations, antenna gains, and antenna boresight angles. The result was rock solid communications "right out of the box".

Biddleborn Pump Station

The installed RTU's now control the entire internal workings of the pump stations and water towers, and report their status back to the graphical operator interface at the office at regular intervals. At the pump stations, the RTUs control the booster pumps based upon the water levels in the remote elevated tanks. Each pump station RTU also rotates the lead/lag sequence every 12 hours, so as to exercise the pumps evenly. The RTUs also monitor each station for power and phase faults - and if there is a power failure, the performance of the backup diesel generators are monitored. Because several of the booster stations and altitude valve stations are situated below-grade, flooding due to a sump pump failure is always a possibility; and therefore float switches were installed and tied to the telemetry system. Extreme temperatures and HVAC performance is always a concern for rural water utilities, and the WiSTAR RTUs help WCWC keep a watchful eye on this situation. The room temperature of all pump stations is continuously monitored with thermocouples, along with the temperature of the pumps' motor bearings - and any extreme temperature reading will generate an alarm. At the water towers, the RTUs monitor the temperatures of their enclosures and provide control of strip heaters to prevent freeze problems. At the pump stations, discharge pressures, ground-storage-tank levels, and chlorine residual levels are monitored. Also, by interfacing to the Sensus electronic-pulse-output meters, flow-rates, meter readings, and daily water usage is reported back to the Operator Interface. At the water towers, tank levels are measured with electronic transducers; and flow rates are approximated by differencing the water tower pressure transducer readings at 15 minute intervals - a novel method of gaining this information without a propeller-based sensor.

C3 (Communication, Command, & Control) Operator Interface

From the first day of installation, the amount of telemetry data available to the Water Company was plentiful - and well organized. Using Navionics' powerful and operator-friendly WiSTAR2000 suite of telemetry software, running atop a DELL Windows95-based workstation equipped with a jumbo 21" display, WCWC personnel have an easy-to-read view of their entire system. With features such as the "Executive Summary", "Detailed Site-Status", "Setpoint-Viewer/Modifier", "Realtime History Charts", and the "WinCOM Wireless Communications Processor", the WiSTAR2000 C3 Station has been set out on a mission to provide valuable service for many years to come.

Portable C3 Operator Interface

Perhaps the most revolutionary achievement for Navionics and our customers thus far has been the development of the WiSTAR2000 Portable C3 Operator Interface. The idea was inspired by suggestions from Mr. Jim Green (Consolidated Water Service), Mr. Steve Fletcher (Washington County Water) and Mr. Wally Cox (Heneghan & Associates). At Washington County, Mr. Fletcher stages his PC3 both at his home and in his SUV. A sophisticated algorithm inherent in the software automatically detects the PC3's location, and modifies the radio communication relay paths accordingly. In this way, Mr. Fletcher is able to maintain a continuous telemetry data link to all his water towers and pump stations while working in the field. The operation is completely hands-free, and it even works while the vehicle is in motion. Also, if Mr. Fletcher travels beyond radio range (to Peoria, for example), he can dial into the telemetry system over a standard phone line for full C3 monitoring and control capability. The dial-in capability was also installed at their engineer's office, Heneghan & Associates (Centralia and Jerseyville, IL), so that WCWC can share their system's hydraulic history data. This seamless link between The Water Company, Heneghan's, and Navionics has enabled all players involved to work together more closely and efficiently.

Oakdale Water Tower

Automatic Failovers

If a pump station were to experience a communication failure to its controlling water tower (or if the pressure transducer at the water tower were to fail), then the RTU at the pump station will automatically failover to a backup control method so as to maintain pressure and storage in the system. Mr. Fletcher can select, at his discretion, pressure, software-timer, or hardware- timer as his preferred backup control. And, although there has never been cause for this feature to activate at WCWC, it is good to know that it is there if needed.

Palmtop Interface

Another useful feature of WCWC's telemetry network is the "Palmtop Interface" port built-in to every RTU. WCWC's field personnel, who are each outfitted with a Hewlett-Packard Palmtop terminal, can then plug-in to any RTU in the system and view the detailed status of any water tower or pump station in the system. Furthermore - and this is very powerful - WCWC personnel can use the palmtop to change setpoints at ANY remote site in the system. For example, personnel at the Biddleborn pump station on the far west side of the system can force a pump ON or OFF over at the Waltonville pump station on the far east side of the system - normally about a 2 hour round trip. Using the palmtop, personnel can even send wireless "t-mail" from a remote RTU to personnel at office's WISTAR2000 Graphical Operator Interface.

"Detail-Coded" Pager Alarm Notification

If any problem should develop, then the C3 Operator Interace at the office in Nashville immediately signals WCWC personnel with a detail-coded alarm message on their pager(s). The pager code contains information describing both the location and nature of the problem - and if the alarm is a "low-water-tower-level" for example, the alarm code even spells out how much water is in the tower. If an alarm condition clears itself (say, for example, a power outage that lasts only 30 minutes), then the paging system sends a detail-coded page to WCWC personnel with this information. This feature can make a world of difference for rural water companies like WCWC, whose operations personnel are often spread out over many miles throughout the course of the day.

- Posted With The Permission Of Washington County Water Company.