Industrial Edge
Flexible SCADA offers savings for midstream water company
Edge computing proved to be essential for WaterBridge including management of their truck-ticketing systems, collection of high-resolution data, and management of their camera systems. TIGA and WaterBridge used the Ignition platform to create a new, open-standards system that would allow WaterBridge to better leverage emerging technologies, gain deeper insights into its operational data, connect to remote facilities with the efficiency and SOURCE: INDUCTIVE AUTOMATION
WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN HAVING A new, modern, flexible system for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)? How about a system that also saves a lot of money, provides much greater access to data, and gives the freedom to do new projects without limitation? WaterBridge found all this and more. WaterBridge is a midstream watermanagement company serving the exploration & production industry. Based in Houston, the company has pipeline networks for produced water transportation, disposal, recycling, and supply. It has 80 facilities connected by 980 miles of pipeline capable of handling 1.8 million barrels of water per day. WaterBridge got the system it wanted from The Integration Group of Americas (TIGA). Based in Spring, Texas, TIGA is a systems integration and engineering services company focused on deploying technology for industrial markets. The company serves customers in a variety of industries. To meet WaterBridge’s ambitious goals, TIGA implemented Ignition by Inductive Automation® — an industrial application platform with tools for building solutions in SCADA, human-machine interface (HMI), and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
SOURCE: INDUCTIVE AUTOMATION
WaterBridge turned to modern technologies for a digital transformation that’s saving a lot of money. The fast-growing company’s new SCADA system uses edge computing and MQTT to collect data from 80 sites, with 200,000 tags.
WaterBridge’s goals, included implementing Ignition with tools for building solutions in SCADA, humanmachine interface (HMI), and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
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security of MQTT, and provide a better user experience. And it’s also saving a lot of money. “Waterbridge has seen a significant reduction in our operational costs using the Ignition platform,” said Charles Lame, technical field services director for WaterBridge. “We believe we are saving about $500,000 a year. We do believe, however, that our improvements in reliability and runtime will net us even more savings.”
Filling needs
TIGA’s implementation of the SCADA system focused on application architecture, ancillary and data integration subsystems, UI/UX design/development, and external interfaces. TIGA also worked with WaterBridge to deploy Ignition Edge local HMIs at 80 saltwater disposal facilities, with industrial PCs and high-resolution monitors. MQTT Transmission, which was created by Cirrus Link Solutions, was used for the transport of data to the centralized Chariot broker for high-resolution data collection and protection against data loss with store-andforward capabilities. Ignition Perspective was used for a mobile-first, responsive design for the SCADA system, giving users a much better mobile experience.
in d u s t r ial et h er ne t b o o k
06.2021
