From Downtime to Uptime:
Newell Automation’s Fix That Kept a Water Utility Plant Running
A municipal water treatment facility in North Carolina experienced a critical failure of its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) computer. This system was responsible for plant data acquisition, monitoring, and supervisory control of essential operations, including high
service pumps, telemetry for elevated tanks, and the raw water pumping station. The failure resulted in a complete loss of these automated functions, posing significant operational risks.
The plant’s SCADA computer was a single point of control for multiple critical systems. When the computer failed, plant personnel initially engaged their municipal IT department. The IT team was able to transfer the hard drive to a different PC chassis and restore basic functionality. However, the SCADA software would not launch due to a missing software key, as the software detected the hardware change and required re-authorization.
Our Solution
Recognizing the urgency, plant personnel contacted Newell Automation, a long-standing partner with deep expertise in SCADA solutions for water utilities. Our Newell Automation controls engineer immediately coordinated with both the City and the SCADA software vendor to diagnose and resolve the issue. Despite the City’s software support contract having lapsed, our engineer facilitated the procurement process and 
worked closely with the vendor to bring the software up to date and restore full operational capability. Thanks to Newell Automation’s rapid intervention and technical expertise, the plant was able to resume automated operations after several days of manual oversight. During the outage, additional staff were required to maintain safe and compliant plant operations, underscoring the importance of robust SCADA support.
Key Lessons for Water Districts
– System Redundancy: Relying on a single SCADA computer introduces significant risk. Water utilities should maintain up-to-date backup systems that can be quickly deployed in the event of hardware failure.
– Software Maintenance: Keeping SCADA software and support contracts current is essential for rapid recovery and vendor support.
– Trusted Partners: Newell Automation’s proactive support and industry knowledge were instrumental in minimizing downtime and ensuring regulatory compliance during a critical incident.
For this water district, the lesson was clear – Computers can and will fail at any time. Build a robust, redundant system with a trusted partner!