Overcoming Water Scarcity Challenges On Providenciales Island

An integrator uses historical SCADA information to help efficiently upgrade a single source water system without leaving customers high and dry.

By Richard Embry and Christopher Little

The residents and industries of Providenciales Island are completely dependent on fresh water produced by a single desalination plant. In 2007, ITT Flowtronex was hired to replace the plant’s overworked pumping system and add a booster pumping station to the distribution system. One of the challenges they faced in designing controls for the system was how to maintain the public water supply while the island’s undersized ground water storage tanks were removed and replaced with a large single tank in the same location, a three to four month process. During the tank replacement process, the pump stations would be operating 24/7 without backup. The main pumping station was put on-line in July 2008, and the booster station was commissioned in February of 2009. Soon after, Turks and Caicos Water Company Manager, Jared Fulton, began using their new SCADA system to closely scrutinize the pumping infrastructure to ensure that it would be able to meet system demands around the clock when the tank replacement project began.

In this article, Richard Embry of ITT Flowtronex, describes how detailed trending information from the new HMI aided in debugging the new pumping systems, as well as overcoming high friction losses in mainlines due to undersized distribution piping and adjusting operating pressures to conserve electricity during low demand periods.