• Seattle area's King County standardizes on Emerson's PlantWeb® Digital Architecture for county-wide master automation plan to improve operations, reduce costs, and maintain compliance
PITTSBURGH, PA, Oct. 29, 2007 -- Emerson Process Management, a business of Emerson, announced today that it has signed a 10-year, multi-million-dollar agreement with King County, Washington, Wastewater Treatment Division. Emerson will automate wastewater treatment plants to improve operations serving more than 1.4 million people.
As part of the collaborative design/supply contract, the terms of which were not disclosed, Emerson will supply, engineer, and install its state-of-the-art PlantWeb® digital plant architecture with the Ovation® expert control system at two existing wastewater treatment facilities and one new wastewater treatment plant.
Implementation, to occur in several phases, will enable King County to integrate real-time process and equipment data from its treatment plants and other remote facilities on a regional basis. It will also make it possible for King County to integrate enterprise business systems on a county-wide basis.
Integrating these information layers will ultimately provide greater insight into King County's processes, assets and overall operations for greater operational flexibility, improved reliability and efficiency. It will also help reduce operations and maintenance costs, and maintain environmental and regulatory compliance in the ecologically-conscious area.
"For this project, we needed a top-flight, experienced supplier that could provide an integrated system across the region -- bridging process control, remote operations and information technology -- using a single, common platform," said Rob Mattern, project manager, Information Systems & Process Automation, Wastewater Treatment Division, King County. "Successful track records with projects of this scope, combined with their integrated control architecture, were key reasons for our selection of Emerson as a long-term partner for this project."
According to John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management, the adoption of a long-term master automation plan will ensure that King County's investments in automation technology will be preserved, even as technology continues to evolve. King County's phased approach also illustrates how municipalities can implement a master automation plan over time, as resources and circumstances allow.
"Implementing an integrated control architecture enables municipalities like King County to build on resources they already have so they can easily meet future needs," said Berra, who also points out that planning for the stewardship and optimization of assets entrusted to them demonstrates King County's strong responsibility to ratepayers. "Whether adopting newer treatment technologies, expanding to meet future population growth, or adjusting to increasingly complex financial and environmental regulations, the integrated PlantWeb digital plant architecture with the Ovation control system will help ensure that King County is well equipped to meet the needs of its customers."
Beyond its broad portfolio of technologies and devices, Emerson will also provide a number of engineering, start-up and installation management services, as well as training, over the course of the agreement.
Emerson Process Management, an Emerson business, is a leader in helping businesses automate their production, processing and distribution in the power, water and wastewater treatment, chemical, oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, food and beverage, life sciences, and other industries.
Emerson's Power & Water Solutions division is a global supplier of advanced distributed process control and information systems.
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