YAKIMA REMOTE MONITORING & CONTROL SYSTEM

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DATA ACQUISITION &
MONITORING
The YRCS alleviates many of the problems faced by
operations personnel by placing the burden of data
acquisition and problem detection on the central
computer. The YRCS collects data on the state of the
system, comparing new data received with previous
data. The remote sites are polled on a regularly
scheduled basis for current data and the data
received from each poll are checked against current
data to determine if changes have occurred. The
managers can schedule automatic polls around the
clock. Data on current gate set points, gate openings,
gate limits, a list of system status values, gate status
values, and data on remote site hardware are
provided in each poll message from each dam.


SUPERVISORY CONTROL
The cruxes of the control operations are gate set points.
Operators can schedule gate set points to occur in real time
up to 72 hours in the future. The 72-hour figure is operatorselectable.
Gate set points are defined by control operations
as the proper gate opening. Gate limits are provided as a
check on operator controls. The gate limits disallow any set
point choices made by the operator, which are out of an
adjustable range.


ALARM FUNCTIONS
Alarms can be generated at the dam sites and by the central
computer as described previously. Each alarm is assigned
a priority based on its importance to normal operation
by the river operator. The project office is not manned 24
hours a day. During non-attended hours, when alarms of a
specified threshold level are generated, the YRCS operators
are notified immediately by portable pocket beepers. The
operators can then call into the central computer using a
touch-tone telephone and receive a voice-synthesized code
of the alarm


SUMMARY
The Yakima Remote Control System is a case study
application of supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) concepts for the operation and monitoring of a
large water resources project. The remote control system
allows centralized control and monitoring of a series of water
storage and diversion dams along the Yakima River which
provide irrigation water and hydropower to the Bureau of
Reclamation’s Yakima Project in south-central Washington