'Smart' water plant showered with praises
Songjiang Water Development Co Ltd was hailed a success in Shanghai’s public assessment last year thanks to its technological measures and refined management. Being “smart” drives it to perform even better in the future.
The monitoring vehicle used a new device to guarantee water quality. It is now loaded with regular as well as medium to large detecting equipment, which is capable of testing 21 indexes.
In case of an emergency, the vehicle can head directly to the site, saving time for water sample delivering.
The original monitoring software has been updated to the latest SCADA model, which automatically sounds an alarm to the control room which should report when any real-time data go beyond the boundary value.
The city pipelines are monitored by a Geographic Information System, which can identify the location of each pipeline and valve. The database shows the position and depth of the fault in case of an emergency and can cut down time needed for repair and maintenance.
Patrols are arranged to secure safety, too.
“We make daily records on the facilities’ conditions, the land subsidence conditional and whether there is an illegal structure near the pipeline, we will report it in each week,” said a patroller.
An app on a cellphone was developed specifically for meter reading to make the process easier and smarter. By taking a picture of the water meter the app is able to tell the numbers. It takes no more than 15 seconds.
“The app saves a lot of time and trouble and it will also remind the users of any abnormality in use,” said Gu Wei, a worker responsible for the reading job.
The company hotline has been adapted to handle complaints. Calls will fall into eight categories to be better dealt with and requests to make repairs go directly to relevant departments.
Four water plants operate in Songjiang, providing 500,000 tons of water each day. With further demands, a new plant in Chedun is under construction to pump another 160,000 tons into southeast Songjiang.
