Challenge
The goal was to allow for better control and monitoring for the company’s processes, which included designing and controlling the compression systems; managing gas; and controlling the production of the Condensed Natural Gas (CNG) dispensers.
Solution
FrameworX from Tatsoft was chosen for its flexibility, ease of use and competitive pricing structure and proved to be more efficient than competitors’ solutions as its structure allows for easy customization with little to no additional tags or scripts.
Results
The project only took a few weeks to complete (less than half the time of similar systems using competing SCADA packages) and it provided MetroLink with a wide array of benefits. Providing remote access through easy to use Web Clients means MetroLink personnel can access the system easily without needing to install and license software on every computer.
“FrameworX helps us to get the data we need and deliver meaningful information”.
James Tuttle, Systems Administrator for MetroLink
Throughout the Illinois Quad Cities, the Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit District—commonly known as MetroLINK—is moving Quad City residents from one destination to another. The organization provides Metro bus service, ADA paratransit and Special Transportation Services, and a seasonal passenger ferryboat service with the Channel Cat Water Taxi. Communities they serve include Moline, Rock Island, East Moline, Silvis, Milan, Carbon Cliff, Hampton, and Colona.
The 3.5 million rides taken each year on MetroLINK services provide vital connections to jobs, education, healthcare, and retail—supporting the local economy and contributing to a vibrant quality of life. Their multi-modal operation keeps riders moving in the right direction while easing traffic congestion and reducing air pollution, making the Quad Cities a better place to live.
To continue delivering these benefits, the company realized they needed a system capable of monitoring Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refueling equipment that supports Metro’s fleet of alternative-fuel buses.
The decision to use Tatsoft FrameworX came from the recommendation of the project’s system integrator, ANGI Energy Systems. ANGI has standardized on Tatsoft for all SCADA systems—citing flexibility, ease of use, and a competitive pricing structure as key reasons. No other software packages were considered for this project. Prior to Tatsoft, ANGI had experience with Wonderware and InteractX, but ultimately selected Tatsoft as their standard platform.
For MetroLINK, ANGI’s responsibilities included designing and controlling the compression systems, managing gas, and overseeing dispenser production. This project had one specific requirement: logging and reporting on dispenser KPIs. To meet that need, a custom data table was created along with queries and a data-grid control that allowed operators to select parameters, view data, and generate clear, informative reports. All of this was accomplished with only a minimal amount of custom scripting within Tatsoft FrameworX.
“The Name Spaces in FrameworX projects provide a wealth of information to use in projects without requiring additional Tags or Scripts to use. Just pluck the information from the Name Space to use in animations, scripts, alarms—wherever you’d like.”
— Larry Stall, Controls Engineer for ANGI
When it comes to the relation between price and benefits, FrameworX’s license model also proved to be an important difference: although there are nearly 750 tags, there are only 454 communication points—Tags using real-world I/O—allowing a lower-cost license than tag-based systems.
Since this was their first Tatsoft project, there was a small learning curve, but after completion the project became a baseline for future implementations. The fact that Tatsoft leverages .NET technologies made it much more efficient to implement custom features (database, reporting, miscellaneous scripting for display functions) than having to use proprietary scripting and features from competing SCADA platforms. Additionally, Tatsoft provides a complete package, which meant the integrator didn’t have to spend time ensuring the required “modules” were purchased and installed.
In the end, the project took only a few weeks to complete—less than half the time of similar systems built with competing SCADA packages (such as Wonderware)—and it provided MetroLINK with a wide array of benefits. With Tatsoft FrameworX, they gained real-time and historical visual representation of the refueling process, improved monitoring, and custom database/data-table functionality that enabled flexible reporting.