Carson City, Nevada - A "Smart City" Success Story

In order to achieve its goals, the people of the Carson City Public Works Department created an infrastructure revolving around the capabilities of its people and the best available smart city technology from Schneider Electric.

Leveraging virtualization, mobile devices and smart phones to increase the efficiency of its operators and management, the smart city solution at Carson City increases situational awareness and allows the public works department to achieve a high level of operational readiness.

Watch the Carson City Success Story Video

Watch the Carson City success story and discover the benefits of the Software Solutions for Smart Cities from Wonderware.

Carson City, the capital of the state of Nevada -- Named after the frontiersman, Kit Carson, who rode through the Eagle Valley in 1840 in his quest to map the west. 

 

Carson City sits in the center of one of the most scenic and historic areas in the country and is known for its fresh air, beautifully rugged natural surroundings and its proximity to the casinos of Reno and skiing in Lake Tahoe. 

 

The Carson City Public Works Department is responsible for taking care of the City's water, wastewater, transportation, landfill, fleet, environmental and renewable power systems. 

Carson City: The positive effects are evident

The positive effects of the Smart City solution on the way work is done in Carson City are quickly evident: The overall solution allowed Carson City to achieve a 15% reduction in man-hours. 

Smart City Key Installation Elements

 

Key Installation Elements of the Smart City solution at Carson City

1. Windows Server run on VMware vSphere with multiple hosts utilizing vMotion, HA, Fault Tolerance, and other features
2. Uses wireless and fiber optic communications infrastructure to the various PLCs that make up the hardware at Carson City: Quantum, Momentum, GE/Fanuc, Allen Bradley PLCs and drive.
3. Uses System Platform on VMware vSphere 5, mobile control with iPads and SmartGlance, analysis on mobile devices for managers and key operators

Virtualization helps the Smart City Solution

 

Carson City has achieved its goals through a complete set of innovative tools, capabilities and solutions.

“The virtual machines that we've implemented here in Carson City have allowed us to reduce the burden of administration and overhead costs while significantly increasing our reliability and disaster recovery processes." 

James Jacklett, Electrical/Signal Supervisor

Traffic light monitoring at Carson City

 

The Smart City solution at Carson City also involves traffic light and transportation system monitoring. It involves 70 Signalized intersections in 3 different counties.

“The City maintains all of the traffic lights in Carson City and Douglas County. Integration with Wonderware has enabled real time status, alarm notification, and historization of the state of communications for the transportation system; which provides us with better monitoring and operational readiness.” 

James Jacklett, Electrical/Signal Supervisor

Solar Power at Carson City

 

The Smart City solution built on Wonderware software helps operate and maintain the solar plants at Carson City.

“This solution also includes the management of the Public Works solar plants that provide up to 748,000 KWH of clean power each year” 

Brandon Mathiesen, Water Production Supervisor

SmartGlance and Situational Awareness

Carson City is able to view its InTouch HMI screens from anywhere using the iPad and mobile phones giving its operators situational awareness at all times.

Because everything is stored in its Wonderware Historian, Carson City enables its senior staff to get instant access to key performance indicators and critical process information right on their mobile devices. Situational awareness is greater than ever. All of this is done through the help of Wonderware SmartGlance.

The iPad for Water and Wastewater Plants

Leveraging virtualization, iPads, and smart phones to increase the efficiency of its operators and management, Carson City is able to increase situational awareness and achieve a high level of operational readiness.

 

It seems common place now but it's very impressive how far we've gone. Today's Smart City solution allows Carson City operators to monitor and control every aspect of the water and waste water plants while on the move.

 

Smart City solution delivers clean water

 

The scope of the Wonderware solution at Carson City is fairly large. Let's focus on the water and wastewater system in this post.

 

Carson City, Nevada - A Smart City Success Story

 

 

In order to achieve its goals, the men and women of the Carson City Public Works Department created an infrastructure revolving around the capabilities of its people and the best available smart city technology from Invensys.

"The Carson City Public Works Department is responsible for taking care of the City's water, wastewater, transportation, landfill, fleet, environmental and renewable power systems. With a staff of over 120 people we are often called on to assist the public in many different ways and many of our duties go on around the clock." 

Darren Schulz, Deputy Public Works Director

Leveraging virtualization, iPads, and smart phones to improve the efficiency of its operators and management, Carson City has increased situational awareness and achieved a high level of operational readiness.