Yokogawa to supply integrated SCADA for Melbourne Water

Yokogawa Electric Corporation recently announced that its subsidiary, Yokogawa Australia, had received an order from Melbourne Water Corporation (MWC) to implement Yokogawa’s flagship supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, OpreX Collaborative Information Server, to help modernise the city’s water supply network that serves more than 5 million people.

Yokogawa Australia was selected to deliver OpreX Collaborative Information Server and engineering services for MWC’s ‘SCADA for our Future’ project, which will take up to three years to complete. Key considerations in the selection process included the company’s strong local capabilities combined with a globally proven SCADA software platform, meeting MWC’s scale, business and operating requirements.

The new SCADA system will serve as a modern platform that can scale as MWC expands its network and capacity to meet the demands of the growing city of Melbourne. Yokogawa says that OpreX Collaborative Information Server will deliver advanced integration capabilities with more flexible access, and support increased resilience to cybersecurity and business continuity threats. The platform will provide MWC with a centralised source of truth for all operational data, and will make this available to all business users and applications to support operational efficiency, advanced analytics and future technologies.

The project is a key element of MWC’s digital strategy goal for “an intelligent network, leveraging automation and analytics to enable effective planning, efficient operations and responsive decision-making”.

MWC’s senior manager of Asset Knowledge and Technology, Aidan Hollier, said: “We are very excited to have Yokogawa working with us to support our continuous growth requirements. We provide water for over 5 million Melbourne residents, with a 24/7 operation, and this requires technology solutions that are reliable and can be continuously maintained for the foreseeable future.”

“The thorough and intensive selection process conducted by Melbourne Water left no stone unturned and really challenged our engineering team,” said Yokogawa Australia’s managing director, Russell Palmer, reflecting on the two-year selection process. “We are excited to partner with Melbourne Water to implement OpreX Collaborative Information Server and support their modernisation and growth objectives. A significant project like this allows us to strengthen our local engineering capabilities, and continue to expand support for our customers as we commemorate the Yokogawa Group’s 110th anniversary this year.”

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