Tag Archives: remote monitoring

Salinity Monitoring and Penstock Automation

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The Water Management Alliance is a consortium of 5 Internal Drainage Boards who ensure that the delicate balance between salt and fresh water is preserved to allow both flora and fauna to flourish and provide fresh water for local wildlife.

The Halvergate Marshes, situated between Norwich and Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk Broads were designated a SSSI by English Nature prior to the formation of Natural England.  The Water Management Alliance is a consortium of 5 Internal Drainage Boards who ensure that the delicate balance between salt and fresh water is preserved to allow both flora and fauna to flourish and provide sufficient fresh water for local wildlifePreviously, local farmers controlled water levels with a series of dams and sluice inlets allowing fresh water from the River Bure to enter but this method of management could no longer be solely relied upon.

Oriel Systems were asked to automate the penstock and provide a system that could automatically raise the penstock proportionally in increments from 0 through to 100% open, to only let fresh water in to the mill pond and subsequently the Fleet, but only when the Fleet was able to take the water.

Once the control strategy was agreed upon Oriel installed in-line salinity monitoring equipment at both the River Bure and the Mill pond.  Ultrasonic water level sensors were installed at the Bure, the Mill Pond and some 4Km away at the Fleet where an Oriel Low Power Telemetry Outstation was installed to transmit the signal back to Halvergate by radio.

An Oriel Intelligent Telemetry Outstation takes care of the day to day sampling of salinity and water levels.  It also makes the decision whether to operate the penstock and if so, by how much.  In the case of power failure the system automatically lowers the penstock stopping any water getting through.

All critical site information is automatically transmitted back to the central office and the Operations Manager is notified by voicemail of any on-site problems.  Once at the Telemetry Master Station PC or if out in the field the operator can view and act upon information from their laptop and is also able to remotely control the equipment from there.

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

Radio telemetry for large dairy to stop contaminated water entering watercourse

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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

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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

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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