A system that remotely monitors and controls water and sewerage assets has led to a major water utility winning the Construction/Engineering Award at the Queensland Project Management Achievement Awards (PMAA).
Unitywater won the PMAA award for their Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system which currently monitors and controls about 1000 of Unitywater’s assets, such as reservoirs and pump stations.
It was designed to alert operators to network issues or incidents and minimise damage caused by large weather events such as sewage overflows by allowing operators to respond in real time.
The award was presented at an Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) event.
“The new SCADA system is much more reliable than previous technology, and while the benefits have been huge, there were some challenges implementing it,” said Unitywater SCADA Program Manager, Andy Wyer.
“We had to bring 11 different systems together to create one common central system. $50 million and 53 months later, that became a reality. This award really recognises the efforts by all involved in the project and celebrates a huge achievement for Unitywater.”
AIPM Queensland President, Mark Patch, said the submissions received for the awards were all of a high calibre. He said there were 150 submissions received from across the nation for the 2015 awards, which were judged by a panel benchmarking against the best projects.
“I congratulate Unitywater on this excellent achievement,” Mr Patch said.
“This award recognises that Unitywater has clearly demonstrated its ability to embed its sustainability principles and practices into their project execution processes and Unitywater will be judged against the other state and territory winners for the National Awards, to be held in Tasmania in October.
The Project Management Achievement Awards recognise, honour and promote outstanding achievements in program and project management.