Keeping tabs on the ebb and flow
WHILE most Tasmanians are asleep, the Operation Control Centre is working hard for TasWater.
Based in Devonport, the Operations Control Centre monitors water and sewerage infrastructure across the state for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
Using real-time data, the OCC ensures water comes out of a customer’s tap, and sew- age is taken away when they flush the toilet.
The OCC oversees all of TasWater’s infrastructure, monitors its operations and calls for workers to fix problems when needed.
“I think the key is we have all the information for the whole state in one room,” Operations Control Centre manager Kevin Douglas said.
“We monitor and operate TasWater’s infrastructure for sewage and water all from one location,” he said.
The OCC is operated by 12 highly skilled workers, who work a combination of continuous shifts.
During all hours of the day TasWater’s OCC operators are monitoring multiple systems at the same time, analysing and assessing situations and keeping an eye on any emerging trends.
“We call the OCC the nerve centre of the business,” Mr Douglas said. “We are a customer centric business and the OCC works for the customers.
“Our goal is for the customers not to ring at all. If the customers don’t ring it means we have no problems.”
The OCC staff also monitor a range of TasWater data systems as well as the weather, seismic events, fire alerts, social media, news and communications systems.
The OCC will be notified by an alarm of any system issues, such as a pump failure, power outage, or water quality change.
Once notified the OCC staff analyse all the information at their disposal to decide on the appropriate action.
Mr Douglas said before the OCC, all the alarms were sent through to an on-call operator but now TasWater has a team working together in a control room.
“The alarms will come into us and we can look at the them and look at trending risk data to analyse the issues,” he said.
“From there we can make an informed decision on what we do.”