Conseil Général des Hauts-de-Seine: new supervision system for the sewerage network

The new supervision system called "GAIA2", of which the Topkapi supervision software is one of the cornerstones, makes real-time data acquisition more reliable, offers better ergonomics and improves the network's operating quality. The GAIA system includes about 750 measurement sensors (water height, speed, valve positions, etc.) distributed over 450 monitoring points in the sanitization network. In addition, pumping stations and automated valves are controlled locally by PLCs supervised by the GAIA system. All this field information is escalated in real time via DSL links, from about a hundred satellite stations to the central supervision for subsequent use.

The GAIA supervision station modernization project was led by a team of 4, each member contributing their skills and sharing their knowledge to reach the objectives set in terms of data reliability, system ergonomics and upgradeability. This team included the Hauts-de-Seine district acting as owner of the GAIA system, SEVESC (Société des Eaux de Versailles et de Saint-Cloud) delegate of the public sanitizing department of the Hauts-de-Seine district, their project manager assistant, SEPIA Conseils, and the Group of companies which realized the one-million ex-tax project, INEO TINEA / ONDEO SYSTEMS.
 

A new GAIA2 system for the improvement of network operations 

The new GAIA2 system was developed, over a period of two years, including IT infrastructures and functionalities. Accepted in AV (Ability Verification) end 2011, it was operated in 2012 in RSV (Regular Service Verification) by SEVESC.

The main improvements made by the new system were:

• Reliabilization of acquisition, refreshing and sampling of data from the sanitization network: the use of DSL links and telephone network coupled with modern remote management controllers with data time-stamped at the source guarantee a system without loss of operating data.
• Better ergonomics of workstations used by various professional trades: specific views such as electromechanical, hydraulic, ... were created per profession, providing each user with easy access to the appropriate data.
• Improved IT performance and system securing by redundant acquisition, equipment and storage: the system's architecture is built around 2 Topkapi hot redundant servers and virtualized IT servers reduce hardware and maintenance cost while improving global system availability.
• Securing escalated alarms and creation of summary indicators allow to alert the operator according to operating contexts (dry weather, rain, unavailability due to works on a structure, etc.): the GAIA application now centralizes all non urgent and urgent alarms, generating a call to stand-by operators (via the Topkapi remote alarm notification module) to improve agent responsiveness and interventions on site. Major work was made to define synthetic variables issued according to a context: "for example, when a storm reservoir flows into the natural environment without rain" explains Bernadette Pister, in charge of the design and control department of the delegation to the Water Department of CG 92.
• Remote and secured user access to the system from any computer station, facilitating emergency interventions: all client/server technologies proposed by AREAL are used in the architecture and made available according to needs: Topkapi heavy clients, web clients, RDP(2) clients.
• An upgradeable system allowing for exchanges with any external system (particularly EDEN(3) for data exchanges with the SIAAP or CALAMAR(4) for pluviometric measurements and forecasts), and facilitating the development of new functionalities such as the implementation of dynamic storage capacity management: for its developments, INEO TINEA leveraged SQL Server type DBMS fed by Topkapi via the ADO.net SQL connector offering the levels of performance necessary to this type of architectures: Topkapi produces several thousand records per second in the base, without any impact on the system's real-time operation performance. For duplex communication with applications such as EDEN or CALAMAR, a solution of the file exchange type was chosen with a very high level of performance.
   

One of the specifics of the system was a data administration portal created by INEO TINEA as a baseline for all GAIA software applications. It is more particularly through this multi-user portal, accessible from any station in the web mode, that Topkapi variables can be declared, modified, ... Then Topkapi's self-setting capacities are used: creation of a seamless file from the portal and used by SOFTLINK for the generation/modification of variables in Topkapi. Obviously, Topkapi's object-based structure was used to ensure maximum standardization of the generic application elements.
 

The new "GAIA2" supervision system is operational and meets the initial specifications sheet.
 

Data acquired and archived in the database can be used both in real time and differed, to produce studies aiming at improving the public sanitizing service and production of self-monitoring data. Hence, daily volumes poured into the river Seine, calculated and consolidated in differed time by the GAIA system are transmitted to Water Police every month.
 

The system is also dimensioned and open to accept the development of new functionalities.

  
(1) Gestion Assistée par l’Informatique de l’Assainissement / Computer Sanitization Assisted Management
(2) Remote Desktop Protocol
(3) Echange de Données ENvironnementales / Environmental Data Exchange
(4) CAlcul des LAMes d’eau par radAR / Water Nappe Radar Calculation