HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (April 3, 2023)— The Nashville District Corps of Engineers installed the first part of a new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system at J. Percy Priest hydropower plant located in Nashville, Tennessee, and it is remotely operated from Old Hickory hydropower plant in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
It took Electronics Services Section three months to build the SCADA system from scratch and learn the coding language which operates the SCADA system. Installation and testing of the new system took approximately two weeks and is one of the biggest in-house projects that has been performed in the district.
The SCADA system currently allows operators and controllers to operate J. Percy Priest hydropower plant remotely from the Old Hickory hydropower plant. ESS and engineers located at the hydropower plants will install control systems at all Nashville District hydropower plants and at the Detroit District hydropower plant.
ESS Supervisor Richard Reiger selected engineers and electronic mechanics within the Nashville District who were well-versed in hydropower plant operations and had working knowledge of the previous SCADA system to build the new SCADA system.
Senior Electronics Mechanic Allen Hay first gathered data from several different sources located at District’s hydropower plants. Once data acquisition was complete, Hay and Ditto worked together to code the start and stop sequences for the SCADA system. After coding the rest of the SCADA system operation functions, the ESS team worked with local electricians at J. Percy Priest hydropower plant to begin installation.
“We faced several hang-ups, especially since we were all learning the coding language for the first time and how to build the system from scratch. We had to teach ourselves the coding language. We had to figure out how to code the system and get the start and stop commands to work properly; once we accomplished that we worked with electricians at J. Percy Priest hydropower plant to begin installation,” said Hay.
ESS Electrical Engineer Skyler Holloway coded the SCADA system interface. “I mainly worked on the interface that the operators, or controllers in the future, will use at the hydropower plants to issue commands to start and stop generator units, manually adjust parameters, and monitor various data being collected from throughout the powerplant.”
Luke Ditto, hydropower plant senior electronics mechanic with the Electronics Service Section, who previously worked for the ESS East office, has been with the Nashville District for over 20 years. Ditto said he has enjoyed his time working with the Corps and being a part of such a huge project brings him an even greater pride in his work.
“We built this system with several things in mind; we wanted to make sure the system was secure and user-friendly for our operators. We spent months learning how to build this system and obtained skills we can use in the future. As we install more of these SCADA systems at our locations over the next few years, we’ll be helping the hydropower program function more efficiently, and I’m glad to be a part of the team who’s accomplished this,” said Ditto.
Jon Stinson, J. Percy Priest hydropower plant journeyman electrician, installed the control system at J. Percy Priest hydropower plant. “I had to order the parts, and once they came in, I installed and wired them into the security cabinet. Overall, the installation went really smooth. It just took a lot of time to install.”
Stinson said he is glad to be part of the first SCADA system installation within the Nashville District. “This is a pretty big deal; the ESS has built an important controls system from scratch, making it a lot easier for us to upkeep this vital SCADA system.”
Electrical Engineer Skylar Holloway said that designing the system’s SCADA user interface and graphical design were some of his biggest accomplishments during this project. “We took elements from the previous system, so operators would have familiarization, but we also updated it to have a more modern, more intuitive look and feel. We wanted it more streamlined and cleaner.”
Originally, the SCADA system was being built by a contracting company, but right before installation, the software used by the company was deemed obsolete in May 2022. Nashville District engineers had to figure out how to replace the SCADA system with no additional funding available.
The SCADA system was originally installed in 1999 and needed prompt replacement due to the original contracting company going out of business, making it impossible to purchase replacement parts.
Reiger said the SCADA system typically costs between $3-million and $10-million for contractors to build and the Corps had to find an alternative way to fund this project on such short notice.
“We weren’t expecting these issues when we originally contracted the job out. After being faced with this predicament, we realized we could train up some of our own people to build the system and program the software, helping us resolve this issue with no additional funding needed,” said Reiger.
The SCADA system brings the Corps hydropower plant operations and controls to a more advanced level of operations.
“The equipment that we selected is similar to and adaptable to, some of the equipment that we have in the hydropower plants already. We’ve put in a whole new communication system to be more flexible and more durable for the new SCADA system,” said Reiger.
Senior Powerplant Operator Analiza Barker said she appreciates all the ESS team’s hard work in building the SCADA system and coding the new control system interface.
“It’s a lot easier to operate the system now. They designed the interface to be more user-friendly. It’s now easy to see here on the screen what’s going on, so if there’s an emergency or something that needs immediate attention, the system will let us know exactly what it is so we can handle it promptly,” said Baker.
Baker said not only will the new SCADA system help her do her job better, but it will also save time and money for the Corps and taxpayers by reducing the response time it could take operations engineers to resolve the issue. “This new technology keeps our systems ahead of the curve. It saves us time and effort, which in turn saves us manpower and money,” said Baker
The ESS has several responsibilities. Some of those duties involve testing hydropower plant transformers, generators, and circuit breakers to ensure peak functionality and maintaining supervisory control and data acquisition which allows remote control of hydropower.
They also maintain safe and clear communication between power plants and conduct cybersecurity for the Nashville District’s nine hydropower plants and the Detroit District’s hydropower plant.
The public can obtain news, updates and information from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District on the district’s website at www.lrn.usace.army.mil, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nashvillecorps and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/nashvillecorps.
The public can also follow Old Hickory Lake on Facebook at www.facebook.com/oldhickorylake. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest Nashville District employment and contracting opportunities at https://www.linkedin.com/company/u-s-army-corps-of-engineers-nashville-district.