Benton PUD Awards Federal Engineering Contract for Radio System Evaluation

Benton PUD (District) has awarded a consulting contract to Federal Engineering, Inc. (FE) to evaluate the District’s existing telecommunications backbone network and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) radio system and make recommendations for improvements.

In its present state, the District’s wireless SCADA communication system is reaching the end of its useful life, limiting field device communication additions. To determine the best approach for future-proofing the wireless SCADA communication system, an RFP was released in search of a consultant with extensive telecommunication systems experience. FE was selected to evaluate the District’s existing software/hardware assets, physical and network architecture, and current/future data traffic demands.

“FE will provide telecommunications and SCADA gap analyses, evaluate relevant technologies, and provide recommendations for improvements including budgetary cost estimates,” said Kirsten Norton, District Engineer. “FE was the best choice candidate. They showcased the most experience in evaluating various types of telecommunication systems and recommending for future enhancements.”

Mr. Rajit Jhaver, Director of Project Operations for Federal Engineering explained: “FE consultants have worked on virtually every type of system and all operational situations, and as a result, we understand the complexities that will be involved in evaluating the District’s SCADA data transport radio system. FE will provide the expertise to assist the district in identifying short and long-term actions to enhance the performance and increase the cost effectiveness of their radio system.”

In addition, Mr. Jhaver, concluded that: “Using information furnished by the District, FE will prepare both physical and network architecture diagrams and spreadsheets showing the design connections/links and noting the throughput of the network links. We will collect and validate both the physical and network architecture of the District’s communications system, in which the following information will be collected:

• Telecommunications fiber optic transport multiplexors
• Dedicated fiber backhaul devices
• SCADA/Sequence of Events Recorder RTUs
• Other Ethernet connected remote data sources
• Microwave radio links
• Data radio links
• Point-to-multipoint radio links
• Routers and switches used to connect network elements
• Data rates of equipment and link throughput speeds

This data will be used to generate our telecommunications gap analysis and recommendations.”