SA Water Regional Telemetry Renewal

The Upper Eyre Peninsula and Regional Telemetry Renewal projects focused on upgrading and renewing telemetry infrastructure across more than 145 sites in regional South Australia including Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Northern Adelaide Hills and Murray Bridge regions.

SA Water engaged GPA to deliver these renewals from Concept Design through to Detailed Design and Delivery, with key objectives to replace end-of-life hardware, upgrade the existing telemetry system components to current standards and improve radio network reliability.

The scope included the renewal of RTU’s (Remote Terminal Units), digital radios and supporting electrical equipment to ensure compliance with SA Water Technical Standards and to improve communication system performance and remote-control capabilities.

GPA was responsible for auditing and resolving the renewal scope of work for each site. Upgrade requirements were then packaged and grouped into a number of standard designs and upgrade approaches. This varied from simple radio replacements to full telemetry panel replacements. SA Water then proceeded with the procurement, fabrication and installation of site upgrades on the basis of this design work performed by GPA.

This project demonstrated GPA’s capability to design and deploy new technology into legacy systems, whilst maintaining network operability throughout the upgrade program, as the upgrade was performed on a site-by-site basis.

This staged approach ensured interoperability between older Kingfisher RTU’s and serial radio technology with newer SCADAPack RTUs and Ethernet radios, supporting existing operations throughout the transition.

The scope of work was extensive and included several key activities and associated outcomes:

Upgrade from FSK to QAM Radios with advanced channel management

• Uplift of radio network performance by increasing digital radio throughput from 19.2 kbps to 160 kbps by utilising Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), replacing the previous 3-ary Frequency Shift Keying (Level 3 FSK) modulation.
• Implemented Token Grant Channel Management (TGCM) on the network, replacing the previous collision avoidance channel management scheme. This substantially improved network efficiency and eliminated unwanted packet losses.
• Deployed Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) optimisation to maximise RF data rates for each remote radio.

Radio network architecture changes

• Implemented new OSN entry points at designated sites to simplify the radio network and reduce single points of failure in previous backbone network links.
• Applied VLAN segmentation to the radio network, allowing telemetry and control links to share the same radio equipment (ie. no separate control link radios), whilst still reliably delivering priority control link traffic.
• Commissioned hybrid Serial and Ethernet networks to maintain existing infrastructure operation during transitional phases.
• Encrypted radio networks using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to eliminate the risk of radio network intrusion by 3^rd

Upgraded from Kingfisher and legacy Serck RTU’s to SCADAPack 470 RTU’s

• Designed and integrated new SCADAPack 470 RTU’s to replace legacy RTU’s including the re-integration of local control system connections and wiring.
• The addition of high-speed Ethernet access to site delivered remote site access for programming and diagnostics (particularly for the legacy Kingfisher equipment), eliminating the need for workshop personnel to travel long distances to attend site for site software issues.
• Implemented combined control and telemetry monitoring on simple sites (ie. tanks with simple valve control).

Renewed (Standardised) Telemetry Cabinet Design

• Replaced existing telemetry cabinets with new equipment panels or gear plates based on standard designs.
• Developed custom designs for sites requiring unique configurations.
• Electrical design refreshes to comply with latest SA Water standards.

Construction and Installation Support

• Decommissioned and removed devices that had reached end-of-life technical and maintenance support.
• Supported workshop personnel with installation and commissioning both on-site and remotely.
• Maintained control links during installation to ensure supply was preserved.
• Delivered detailed engineering for installation scopes of work with clear site instructions for site installers to allow smooth and trouble-free changeovers.

GPA’s delivery of comprehensive design, installation, testing, and commissioning services resulted in modernised and enhanced telemetry systems across key regions, ensuring improved control, communication, and compliance with SA Water standards.