Waitoa Industrial Estate Ltd required a complete solution for an existing wastewater treatment site including delivery of a fully integrated wastewater treatment plant and upgraded treatment ponds that staff could manage remotely, meeting environmental standards and strict Council compliance reporting and resource consent requirements.
With COVID-19 continuing to affect supply chains, we knew global materials and electronic shortages would require forward planning and we incorporated huge lead times for parts into the planning stages; 9 months for cables, 12 months for PLC components, 6 months for UPS, batteries, variable speed drives and soft starters, to ensure we could deliver to the project to exacting standards.
We also drew on our experience and relationships with suppliers: Industrial Switchboards Ltd, NHP and Eaton, to find alternative options that still met the stringent controls required to deliver the upgraded plant within the 12-month build timeframe.
To achieve a system that allowed for full scalability, intense engineering was required to size switchboards, motor control centres, design SCADA layout, PLC type and models. We utilised the team’s extensive expertise in software and electrical engineering and communicated with Waitoa throughout the design process to ensure we continued to meet their requirements.
After a 12 month delay due to materials shortages, our team, comprising of 8-12 electricians, apprentices, instrument technicians and automation engineers, delivered the build, meeting strict Waikato Regional Council effluent discharge emissions regulations. With constant monitoring by WRC throughout, we completed the construction with zero overflows to nearby stream or farmland.
We custom-designed motor control centres and system architecture to provide a solution, with great feedback from Waitoa throughout the process with the end solution exceeding their expectations.
We undertook the full planning, design and build process to deliver a user-friendly, site wide control system for the entire wastewater treatment process on behalf of Waitoa. The process alarm notification system we implemented can quickly alert the operator through cellphone message to enable a prompt response to the area of concern, a critical feature of an effective wastewater treatment plant operation.
The fully customised system features an automatic Dissolved Air Floatation (DAF) plant, four new treatment lagoons with integrated aerators and mixers, an automated Bio-Solids removal plant, variable speed drives, PLC equipment, and a 3200amp MCC/Switchboard that integrates fully with existing systems.
We transformed the existing plant and treatment ponds systems to create a scalable solution for Waitoa Industrial Estate, enabling them to monitor and manage the plant, be alerted to changing circumstances promptly and undertake compliance reporting from offsite, and to allow for extended growth to meet their future needs.
