The CAP Group is an industrial conglomerate that manages the integrated water service in the provinces of Milan, Monza and Brianza, Pavia, Varese and Como according to the house providing model, meaning guaranteeing public control of the partner bodies. It combines the public nature of the water resource and its management with a managerial water service organisation through know-how and expertise. In terms of size and capital, the CAP Group is one of the most important single utility companies in Italy.
CAP Holding has started from the need to revamp its old platform by switching over to a new system that is open, flexible and powerful, and able to integrate most of the RTUs and PLCs. Attention has been paid to innovative technology, and above all to continuity and maintenance which are basic parameters for the water cycle manager. Remote control has been immediately seen as a fundamental pivot of CAP’s developments. CAP is in the forefront in Research and Development, including continuous studies on energy monitoring, leak control and key performance indexes. All functions had to be migrated to the plants managed on the territory which has required an increase in remote control stations in terms of number and type.
Flexibility. The platform used has met all of CAP’s needs, and today it has become an essential technological platform in the process management to which are connected all already existing remote units (about 250) and the new ones installed (almost 1000), new devices (e.g. sewage spillways, energy meters, weather stations) and specific installations (e.g. access control).
Reliability. The high reliability of the selected platform at a Farm Server has enabled total continuity of service due to numerous emergency Local SCADAs placed inside the most important system plants.
Complete maintenance. A complete 5-year maintenance agreement allowed CAP to manage the system in total security and economy, with a total training course provided to its staff.
Advice and personalization. In addition to having identified the best platform on the market for CAP’s needs the platform has also been customized to meet all the customer’s requirements (leak detection, plant key performance indexes, access control, local and centralized automation, etc.). A complete data warehouse system (DIM) has been created to support the company in its energy certification according to ISO-50001.
Today the system has almost 1,200 controlled RTUs of different types with multiple transmission carriers (ADSL, GPRS, PSTN, etc.) and protocols. In addition to the remote control of the plants, the automations of over 25 of the main purification plants, almost all equipped with emergency Local SCADAs, are managed. The complete reliability of the system is ensured by a redundant configuration on Virtual Machines with a faster connection to all available operators (Internet on PCs and tablets) alerted by a complete and flexible management system (SMS, email, voice). Thanks to constant training collaboration, CAP’s technical personnel were able to gradually grow to the point of attaining complete autonomy, allowing the SCADA to be a fundamental element of some important projects, such as monitoring of the sewage spillways and detention basins, monitoring odors of the treatment plants and many others.
