Right of Way - January/February2019

Brown and Caldwell, a leading environmental engineering and construction firm, announced the launch of BC Blue TM, a smart utility approach to efficiently manage and operate water, wastewater and stormwater utilities.

Business intelligence visualizations collect system-wide data, transforming it into a singular view of enhanced analytical information and foresight to help staff make informed decisions faster. Bringing engineering, operations, water quality and management together, the visualizations integrate systems including supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), asset management, customer service and geographic information systems.

By embracing the BC Blue approach, utilities can discover and utilize untapped potential to create a smart utility path forward for efficient, high-value outcomes. Subsequent benefits include real-time contaminant detection and improved water quality, enhanced asset monitoring for infrastructure and equipment replacement, predictive emergency response, improved customer service and resource conservation.

“BC Blue helps utilities efficiently align operations and systems to better collect and understand data for long-term capital investment and innovation planning while reducing operator training time,” said Kevin Stively, smart utility services leader at Brown and Caldwell.

SUEZ, one of the nation’s largest investor-owned utility organizations, is partnering with Brown and Caldwell to develop a state-of-the-art smart SCADA process throughout its award-winning 1,000 square mile SCADA network. The BC Blue-inspired method will establish an integrated, intuitive SCADA system harnessing data and analytics for increased utility performance and security while reducing operator training time.

Powered with this approach, SUEZ will implement smart SCADA upgrades and renewals throughout its 15 North American utility operations, ensuring alignment with the firm’s overarching smart utility vision. A first for an investor-owned utility, the large-scale integration of SUEZ’ SCADA systems encompasses more than two dozen systems, each operated independently from one another.