Success story monitoring/control of Indira Gandhi Canal

If the system is designed, installed, commissioned, fine tuned and installed properly, considering all the local conditions, the system works fine for years together. Monitoring/Control of Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana is the ideal example. The system is used for monitoring and control of canal system every day, for decision support system and corrective action. We are proud to confirm that the system is useful even today. It is really a great achievement to keep the Canal Real Time Monitoring and Control with SCADA running for more than Four (4) years. It is because of the basic interest of the Water Resource Department, Government of Rajasthan, and the reliability of design, manufacture, installation and commissioning, even remote locations. The use of Solar Power and VSAT communication made it possible.

Indira Gandhi Nahar is about 660 km. Long canal and is life line of Western Rajasthan. It not only delivers water for Irrigation, but also caters drinking water requrements to very thirsty parts of barren Rajasthan. Canal originates from Hari-Ka-Barrage, and flows through Punjab and Haryana before reaching Rajasthan Border. There are more than 53 Head and/or Cross Regulators. Since the canal is too long, it was very difficult to regulate, from one central location. It was a major hurdle to know the discharges of all the Head/Cross Regulators at the same time. Siltation and vegetation, particularly at the tail of the canal, due to sand storms is another problem. The siltation and vegetation reduces the cross sectional area, effecting the discharge, and must be dealt immediately. It is difficult to construct any flow measuring structures in the main canal, discharge measurements, since it runs all 24 x 7 x 365.

The SCADA system was installed consisting of, Two Master Control Centres, (MCC) Three Regional Control Centres, (RCC), Eleven Field Control Centres, (FCC), and Fifty Three Measuring Centres, (MC), and remotely controlled Cross Regulator gates at six locations, by Water Resources Department, Government of Rajasthan in February 2010. The discharge and cumulative discharge is measured with Side Looking Acoustic Doppler Current Meters (ADCM) and upstream Level by Ultrasonic Level Sensor, in stilling well, at each measuring location. The discharge measured by ADCM was crosschecked with Down Looking Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADCP), which not only calculates the discharges, but measures the actual cross sectional area also. This measurement is carried out by moving the ADCP across the canal. One centimetre position accuracy is achieved with the help of Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS). The actual area calculations, was substituted for discharge measurements using side looking Doppler, as, As-built dimensions may be slightly different than the design dimensions, generating errors.

Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) type of communication is being used for this application, making it possible to pass control commands remotely for operation of the gates. The data at measuring stations is logged every 15 minutes interval, and transmitted hourly. Solar Power Supply with two sunless days autonomy, powers all the measuring stations. The SCADA system uploads this received data at www.ignp.co.in website every hour and can be surfaced from anywhere.

Since the discharge and levels of every measuring location is available on line, at a glance, at all MCC and RCCs, and FCCs, it is very easy to schedule and reschedule the discharge in any reach of the canal. Since the canal is checked with ADCP every 15 days, any siltation and vegetation is reported immediately, for appropriate action, and correct discharge is reported every time.

It was because of the regular maintenance of the complete system, and monitoring of the data every day, the system is operational till today. It is really a great achievement to keep the Canal Monitoring Real Time SCADA running for more than Four years.