For 30 years, our engineers have been dedicated to producing technology and creating specific solutions for sanitation applications. It has been almost half a century helping companies from the South to the North of Brazil to improve the population's quality of life through the optimization of their water and sewage systems. One of these companies, Companhia de Água e Esgotos da Paraíba (CAGEPA), sought in Altus products the robustness, flexibility and availability necessary to develop a new system for application in its operational units.
CAGEPA operates in 87% of Paraíba's municipalities, where it is responsible for water supply in 194 municipal seats and 24 districts. The system, first installed at the Pitimbú, Jacumã and Caaporã units, was designed to be the new low-cost solution for small and medium-sized water supply systems. The solution developed aims to reduce physical loss rates in the system, operational and input costs, improve the quality of distributed water and also reduce electricity consumption.
In order to achieve these purposes, the automation system was modeled to control the filling of reservoirs and regulate the pressure in the distribution network.
Where does Altus technology come in?
The developed application uses a 10” HMI from X2 BASE family and MODBUS remotes to perform real-time control and monitoring of equipment and field instruments installed in the units. The X2 Series of human-machine interfaces is a truly open platform, with robust hardware and high-performance graphics solution. In this project, the logic applied to the interlocking criteria was carried out using scripting tools only, allowing the HMI to act without the need to use a programmable controller.
Bruno Borba, Deputy Automation Manager at Cagepa, highlights that the tools used in the project are equivalent to those applied in medium and large systems, with SCADA software. “This serves to demonstrate the versatility of X2 and the easy interaction with the IX Developer environment, which, I highlight, is free software”, says Bruno. “The use of X2 for the control and monitoring of small systems proved to be extremely viable from a technical and financial point of view, as it fully met all the requirements we sought”, he adds.
Another notable feature of the X2 HMIs that was fundamental in implementing the project is its native remote mirroring capability. The resource allows the company's automation technicians to connect to devices through VPNs, thus being able to carry out checks and parameterizations on the systems. This device helps to reduce response time in times of urgency and, above all, reduces costs with travel to maintain the unit.
Discover our sanitation solutions at the AESabesp Technical Meeting
Altus is one of the sponsors of the 31st AESabesp Technical Meeting – National Congress of Sanitation and Environment. Held between 24 and 26 November, the congress will bring together the greatest professionals and experts in sanitation and the environment to talk about the market's prospects for 2021, present new solutions and discuss the future of the segment. On the 26th, at 4:20 pm, our collaborator Jones Clemente Camilo, Business and Applications Manager, will present a talk on 4.0 Solutions for automation of workstations water and sewage treatment.
Register for the AESabesp Technical Meeting and Discover our new solutions for the sanitation market!
