IoT optimizes monitoring and control of water treatment systems

Established in 1936, Silhorko-Eurowater has a rich history of delivering durable waterworks and related equipment, some of which remain in use today. The company sought to enhance its product offerings by incorporating a more advanced digital component. It aimed to develop an IoT solution to monitor and manage water treatment systems more effectively.

Silhorko-Eurowater's specific requirements included real-time monitoring of water flow, purity, and pressure, along with an alert system based on specific metrics and an alert chain schedule. The solution needed to provide detailed analytics and reporting capabilities while being scalable enough to handle a vast amount of data from numerous water treatment plants across multiple locations.

Context& designed an architecture centered around Azure IoT Hub and Azure Data Explorer (ADX) to achieve these goals. The IoT Hub serves as a central message hub, facilitating bi-directional communication between Silhorko-Eurowater's devices and the cloud. Data collected from the water treatment plants' PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) is transmitted via IoT gateways known as Secomea boxes to the IoT Hub. From there, the data is ingested into ADX, a powerful big data analytics platform capable of handling substantial telemetry and log data.

One of the solution's key features is the client-side application developed using Blazor and Syncfusion. This application provides users with a real-time dashboard where they can visualize metrics through drag-and-drop widgets, such as gauges and multi-graphs, and set up alert chains and schedules. The system ensures alerts are triggered and escalated appropriately, enhancing responsiveness and operational efficiency.

The alert system is designed to notify the relevant personnel via email, phone, or app when specified metrics meet certain conditions. It also includes an alert chain schedule to determine when to alert, which teams need to be alerted, and the order of escalation. This ensures timely responses to potential issues, preventing downtime and maintaining high service quality.

To address reporting needs, the system has a reporting module that creates and sends reports on a specific schedule. These reports provide detailed insights into the water treatment processes, helping Silhorko-Eurowater maintain operational transparency and efficiency.

Initially, a single database was used for all customers, but to address scalability, Context& planned a transition to a more distributed database approach, improving performance and capacity.

The result of the collaboration between Context& and Silhorko-Eurowater is an IoT solution that not only has modernized Silhorko-Eurowater's product offerings but also opened new revenue opportunities. The system enables detailed monitoring and management of water treatment processes, ensuring high service quality and operational efficiency.