All posts by orieluser

Radio telemetry for large dairy to stop contaminated water entering watercourse

Oriel Systems have just completed a project for a large dairy in Wiltshire providing Automation and Control of a pair of Rotork Actuators and Penstocks

Automation was required to prevent run-off water contaminated with milk powder from the manufacturing process entering the local watercourses until it had been tested for water quality purposes.

In normal operation the run-off water is stored in a large holding pond some distance away on site which is subject to evaporation and refilling through normal precipitation.  The distance and the terrain proved unsuitable and too costly to run cables between the penstocks and the sensor so Oriel reccomended the use of a low power radio link between the two locations.  Oriel engineers installed an Ultrasonic Level sensor at the holding pond along with an Oriel Intelligent Telemetry Outstation or ITO that would accept the water level signals.   In cases of extreme precipitation and when the holding pond reaches it’s upper level and only once waterquality testing has been performed and found to be of acceptable quality can the signal be sent over the radio link to the Actuators and allow operation of the Penstocks to release water to a safe level into the local watercourse.

The radio link provides cost savings for installation over traditional cabling and allows remote interrogation and control of on-site conditions and has proved to be a cost effective and reliable solution for automating the penstocks along with providing a reduction in staffing costs

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com


Live Video feeds over 3G at remote Pump Stations sites

With the cost of copper and other metals increasing substantially over the last year or so, there seems to be a worrying and increasing trend of thefts and attempted break-ins at remote Pumping Station sites at present.

The target in many cases is the copper windings in the electric motors and inside high current cables.  It is not so much the theft of the materials, although that is obviously a problem, but also the damage that is caused to other equipment, structures and buildings in removing these items, customers have reported chains being used to attach to pump motors, and then vehicles being used to pull these items away from their fixed concrete bases.  The other problem customers have reported is vandalism and public safety issues.  The consequence of this is that with the disruption caused, it can take many months to get the Pump Station operational again and insurance renewal costs will have to rise as a result of this.

In response to this Oriel have introduced their Video Intelligent Telemetry Outstation or “VITO” a low-cost cctv video monitoring solution that can be installed at any remote site even though it may not be connected to a land-line.  For those customers that already have an Oriel outstation, their existing unit can be easily upgraded to provide live colour video back at the main office.

After a successful trial at one of their remote Pump Stations, Lindsey Marsh DB have placed the order for 10 more of their remote Pump Station sites to be linked up with cctv and integrated into the Main LMDB Telemetry System at Louth.  This will ensure that their insurance renewal costs remain low and the system should pay for itself in a matter of years.

The cctv monitoring system comprises a state of the art outdoor day and night colour camera at the site, fixed in a strategically placed location that monitors access to the site at all times and sends real-time video back to the Control Centre in Louth using Mobile Broadband / 3G technology.  Door switches and PIR sensors have been installed at any potential entrance points.  If any unauthorized access occurs it is immediately reported to the Duty Engineers by voice message on their mobile phones, the Duty engineer can then  view the relevant site screen in real-time on the Main Telemetry PC.   A continuous 24/7 high resolution (HD) video is automatically stored onto Oriels’  VITO, which can then be downloaded onto a memory stick and re-played using a free to use media player available on the internet.

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com

Underwater surveillance of migrating fish via remote live video feed


A new solution, by Oriel Systems, allows operators to remotely view live video feeds of Salmon and Sea trout in order to monitor their numbers and gauge the health of the river.

The monitoring of spawning salmon and sea trout numbers in rivers gives a good indication as to the general ‘health’ of a river. It also helps to confirm whether pumping stations and other water control structures are causing obstructions to fish movements and if fish-passes are working as they should.

Research by the EA has found that some of the smaller fish passes previously constructed to allow to allow salmon and sea trout to travel upstream to spawn were proving difficult for the fish to locate during high river flows and it was found that large numbers of fish were congregating below these structures preventing them from their upstream migration.  During autumn these passes also often became blocked by debris which was limiting the ongoing recovery of the fish population.

The freedom of movement of fish is important in achieving and maintaining a good ecological balance to our watercourses

Live video feed is an excellent means of acomplishing this, however, live video monitoring generally requires either on-site viewing or a visit to download the information and re-playing at a later date.  Oriel System’s solution solves this issue by allowing live video feed to be transmitted back to a central monitoring station.

The solution, soon to be adopted by the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board, provides time and cost savings and will be integrated into an existing on-site telemetry system, with the existing telemetry outstations being upgraded to Oriel’s Video Intelligent Telemetry Outstations or VITO’s.

The system comprises a number of compact submersible camera’s, specifically designed for underwater applications up to 50m deep and using built-in high sensitive IR LEDs, they can capture video in total darkness.  Various mounting arrangements are available however the BSIDB are mounting them in a perspex panel attached to cables and then lowered into positions that allow for easy retrieval for cleaning, the frequency of which will vary for different watercourses. Live underwater video images from the remote site are transmitted using mobile phone technology back to the Central Monitoring station and appear in a sub-window on the water company’s Telemetry Master Station PC. Live video is only displayed when required and movement is detected by the submersible cameras.

 

 

 

 

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com


Remote Monitoring System for Major Norwegian Bottled Water Supplier

Oriel Systems have recently completed a project for a large still and sparkling mineral water bottling plant in the Hardanger area of Norway.

This glacial wilderness has never been settled or industrialised and is protected from development by two national parks.  Access is difficult as temperatures fall below -40 degrees C at night time and the area is covered in snow with regular snowfalls and avalanches during winter time.  It is here and under these conditions that the mineral water is extracted to ensure it’s purity.  Since it’s introduction into the UK in 2008 the company has won many awards and is now sold in all major supermarkets throught the country

The project has involved a number of Oriel Intelligent Telemetry Outstations being installed at the Pump Houses located at strategic locations on the glacier face.  These Pump Houses are responsible for pumping the glacier water directly to the bottling plant some 5Km distant.  The main objective was to provide information on the performance of each of the Pump Houses and to be able to control the Auma actuated valves located at each remote site without having to send an engineer to site to physically open or close them using the supplied hand winding mechanism.  A trip to one of the Pump Houses would take approximately two hours due to the area being snow covered for most of the year and access finally involves an hours walk by the engineer due to snow and rough terrain.

With the extraction and bottling process it is imperative that no air is allowed to enter the water pipeline along which the mineral water travels as this could cause bacteria to grow and the quality of water would then be affected.

Communications between the sites is by GPRS with external low profile aerials to guard against snow and avalanche damage.  Oriel’s GPRS Telemetry solution links up all the remote sites and provides bi-directional communications between the Control Centre and the remote sites for critical equipment and process monitoring and control.

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com

Norwegian Pump House

Automation of Rotork Actuators

Oriel Systems have just completed a project for a large dairy in Wiltshire providing Automation and Control of a pair of Rotork Actuators and Penstocks.

Automation was required to prevent run-off water contaminated with milk powder from the manufacturing process entering the local watercourses until it had been tested for water quality purposes.

In normal operation the run-off water is stored in a large holding pond some distance away on site which is subject to evaporation and refilling through normal precipitation.  The distance and the terrain proved unsuitable and too costly to run cables between the penstocks and the sensor so Oriel reccomended the use of a low power radio link between the two locations.  Oriel engineers installed an Ultrasonic Level sensor at the holding pond along with an Oriel Intelligent Telemetry Outstation or ITO that would accept the water level signals.   In cases of extreme precipitation and when the holding pond reaches it’s upper level and only once waterquality testing has been performed and found to be of acceptable quality can the signal be sent over the radio link to the Actuators and allow operation of the Penstocks to release water to a safe level into the local watercourse.

Driver Controlled Delivery System for BP LPG

Oriel Systems have been awarded the contract for the supply and integration of CCTV and Remote Monitoring and Control Systems into BP’s Driver Controlled Delivery system at all the BP LPG sites throughout the UK.

 

The problem that BP had was that their 13 LPG filling terminals sites were all 24/7 operations and the Health and Safety Executive insisted on 2 people being present at all times to oversee the filling operations.  Some days there may not be a single tanker pulling in to refuel and yet there would still need to be 2 BP staff on site.  Over all of BP’s sites this amounted to 26 staff that would have to be employed and also paid overtime (with unsociable shift allowances) although in many cases these staff may not actually be required.

 

Oriel Systems’ PC based Control and Monitoring software system was installed at each site, which, upon a tanker arriving out of hours would open a voice communications channel between the filling site and the Central Control Station located in Scotland.  As soon as this communications link is opened up the screen for the individual site automatically appears in the foreground on the PC.  From the overview screen the Central Control operator grants the tanker driver the required permissions to commence re-fuelling operations and a “time band” is allocated to him.  During this “time band” all the critical and emergency systems such as the fire pump and deluge system are running non-stop.  Once the “time band” has been exceeded the system will automatically shut down necessitating another “time band” to be allocated and permissions to be repeated.

 

At all times, two cameras, one fixed the other moveable via on screen controls follow every move the tanker driver makes.  If he were to fall and injure himself this would be picked up immediately and the necessary action initiated and the operation automatically shut down.

 

Although CCTV is commonplace these days, the difference was that BP wanted a system that allowed their remotely sited operators to view their own sites on their standard office PC’s and also that the filling operations at each of the remote sites could be viewed over BP’s own high speed Wide Area Network from any location around the country just by plugging a laptop into the nearest standard telephone connection point and accessing the relevant password protected pages.  This gave BP the flexibility that they needed at this time, with the option to move the Control Centre to another location at a later date without incurring additional expense.