Detroit's Remarkable New SCADA System

The City of Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), the third largest water and sewer utility in the United States, has just completed a new SCADA system of unmatched size in the wastewater and water industry. DWSD's new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system replaced the old control systems in the Systems Control Center (SCC), which controls all water distribution and wastewater collection and transport, and the Plant Control Center (PCC) in the Department's Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The project also added a number of control rooms, and a large number of sensors and control devices to DWSD processes, to enable more monitoring, control, and coordination of DWSD facilities and processes. The primary purpose was to provide uniform monitoring and control throughout all of DWSD's facilities, with a standardized approach to accomplish it and ensure continued high quality and economic services to customers.