City of Eugene Success Story

The City of Eugene operates a wastewater treatment facility with a peak capacity of 277 million gallons daily (MGD) using five processes.
 

Aerial view of the City of Eugene's wastewater facilities. (Courtesy of the City of Eugene.)
 

Executive Summary

The City of Eugene’s Water & Electric Board is Oregon's largest customer-owned utility since 1911. The City’s Wastewater Division wished to enable mobile access to the control system for operations and maintenance staff from any location within the facility. Requirements called for a dedicated, secure wireless network.

The City of Eugene relies on a single water plant on the
McKenzie River to supply 200,000 people.
 

The City of Eugene contracted Yokogawa for a solution. Not only is Yokogawa the control system supplier, but the company also has considerable experience with wireless instrumentation and control systems. In addition, Yokogawa’s extensive cyber security experience was a very important consideration.
 

Challenges

The expansive grounds presented a challenge to accurately conducting a site survey. Not only are there many buildings and other structures, which interfere with wireless communications, construction work was taking place at the time of the survey. The City of Eugene required 100% wireless coverage with no loss of access.
 

Solution

The City of Eugene team worked collaboratively with Yokogawa to ensure successful deployment of the solution. Three key components comprised the solution design: the dedicated wireless network, cyber security and remote connectivity.

Dedicated Wireless Network

During the site survey, Yokogawa identified the optimal physical locations, indoors and outdoors, for wireless access points. The detailed report that resulted from the survey also defined the wireless networking hardware.
 
Cyber Security

Requirements called for robust cyber security throughout the entire network. The cyber security design includes network segregation and integration per the IEC 62443 series of standards. The design also included installation and configuration for centralized patch management, centralized antivirus, backup and recovery, and system hardening. Each of these provisions is integral to cyber readiness and business continuity planning for the City of Eugene.

The City of Eugene (COE) Business Domain.
 

Remote Connectivity

Yokogawa’s VTS Portal software platform provides secure remote access via the wireless network for remote monitoring and operations by clients.

Customer Satisfaction

With the complete wireless solution and mobile operations in place, the City of Eugene Wastewater Division is now assured of considerably higher efficiency and flexibility in plant monitoring and control.