The short answer
Schneider SCADA
The Schneider Electric SCADA product built for water telemetry is EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert, formerly ClearSCADA, which descends from the Control Microsystems telemetry line along with the SCADAPack remote terminal units. It is a wide-area telemetry platform first and a plant HMI second: its database is an object model in which sites, channels, and points carry configuration and history together; its native protocol is DNP3 with event-driven reporting and time stamps from the field; its historian is built in; its servers run as hot standby pairs or triples; and its clients are a thick client for engineering and operations and a web client for everything else. Utilities with dozens or hundreds of remote sites on radio and cellular are where it fits best. Since Schneider Electric also owns AVEVA, the plant HMI products from that family sit alongside it, and a utility may run Geo SCADA for the collection system and an AVEVA product for the plant.
Key points
- Geo SCADA Expert, formerly ClearSCADA: telemetry-oriented, event-driven, DNP3-native, with a built-in historian.
- An object database: sites, channels, points, alarms, and history configured together and inherited from templates.
- Hot standby servers as pairs or triples with automatic failover and synchronized databases.
- SCADAPack remote terminal units pair with it, programmed in IEC 61131-3 languages with DNP3 event configuration.
- AVEVA products under the same ownership cover the plant HMI side; the two coexist rather than merge.
Architecture
| Element | Notes |
|---|---|
| Server | Runs the object database, the drivers, the historian, and the alarm system; main and standby servers synchronize |
| Object database | Groups, sites, channels, scanners, points, alarms, trends, and displays as objects with inheritance through templates |
| Drivers | DNP3 natively, with Modbus, IEC 60870, and controller-specific drivers; polling and unsolicited reporting |
| Historian | Built in; stores values and events with source time stamps; exports through standard interfaces |
| Thick client | Engineering and operations client on workstations |
| Web client | Browser and mobile access with displays and alarm handling |
| Redundancy | Hot standby server pairs or triples, including geographically separated servers |
Event-driven telemetry
A DNP3 outstation at a lift station records changes as events with time stamps and reports them when polled or, when unsolicited reporting is enabled, as they happen. The SCADA receives a sequence of changes rather than a snapshot at each poll, so a pump that started and stopped between polls is recorded with the times it actually ran, and a radio path that carries only changes carries very little. Geo SCADA is built around that model: the historian stores the events with their source time, the alarms are stamped with the time the field saw them, and a site that was out of contact backfills when it returns. Configuring the outstation event classes and deadbands is as much a part of the system as the SCADA configuration.
SCADAPack
The SCADAPack remote terminal units are the field side of the same lineage: controllers with I/O, serial and Ethernet ports, and DNP3 and Modbus built in, programmed in the IEC 61131-3 languages through the vendor tool, with DNP3 event configuration per point. They are common at lift stations, wells, and tanks on utilities that adopted the platform, and they work with other SCADA systems over DNP3 and Modbus as well. The configuration of a SCADAPack, the program and the DNP3 point map, is backed up alongside the SCADA database.
Fit
- A collection system or distribution system with many remote sites on radio and cellular, where bandwidth is scarce and time stamps matter.
- Utilities that need geographically separated redundant servers.
- Regulatory records that depend on when a pump ran or an alarm occurred, with source time stamps.
- Less natural for a single plant with a fast Ethernet network and no telemetry, where a plant HMI product is simpler.
On a site visit
- 1
Server status
Main and standby roles, synchronization state, and the last failover.
- 2
Communications
Per-site channel and scanner status, success rates, and the time since the last good poll.
- 3
Outstation configuration
DNP3 event classes, deadbands, and unsolicited settings per site; a site that reports too much or too little is configured wrong at the field end.
- 4
Database export
A configuration export to the engineering library, compared with the previous one.
- 5
Backups
The database backup, the SCADAPack programs and point maps, and the license details, in the library and offline.
Frequently asked questions
- Is ClearSCADA the same product?
- Yes: ClearSCADA was renamed Geo SCADA Expert under the EcoStruxure brand. Installed systems and their documentation use both names.
- Can it talk to non-Schneider controllers?
- Over DNP3 and Modbus to any controller that supports them, and through controller-specific drivers for common families. A Logix or Modicon controller at a plant is polled over its protocol; the event-driven features need a DNP3 outstation at the field end.
- Why run two SCADA products at one utility?
- Because the plant and the collection system have different needs: fast Ethernet, rich graphics, and process history at the plant; scarce bandwidth, time-stamped events, and many small sites in the field. Many utilities run a plant HMI and a telemetry SCADA, with data exchanged between them, and the ownership of both by one company does not change that.
- What is the licensing basis?
- Point count and server and client roles, with the redundancy servers licensed as such. Confirm the current terms with the vendor before adding sites.
Related topics
- DNP3The protocol built for utility telemetry: master and outstation, static and event data classes, unsolicited reporting, time-stamped events, and why it suits slow links that Modbus does not.
- SCADA CommunicationsHow SCADA servers talk to controllers and the field: polling and report by exception, the protocols and what each is for, media from plant Ethernet to radio and cellular, poll rate arithmetic, timeouts and quality, time sync, store and forward, and security.
- AVEVAField notes on the AVEVA operations software family, formerly Wonderware: InTouch HMI, System Platform and its object model, the Historian, Plant SCADA from the Citect lineage, and AVEVA Edge. Which product does what, and what to check on site.
- SCADA RedundancyWhat redundant SCADA servers protect against and what they do not, how failover works for tags, alarms, history, and clients, the network and controller layers beneath it, and why an untested failover is not redundancy.
- High Retry CountPolls that succeed on the second or third try: a weak or noisy path, interference, collisions from a second master, a timeout shorter than the radio turnaround, a data rate the path cannot carry, or a slow controller. Reading retry statistics per site.
- Other PlatformsThe SCADA and HMI products a water utility may meet beyond the common ones: Siemens WinCC, distributed control systems, independent SCADA products, hosted lift station monitoring, and open-source tools, and the questions that decide whether one belongs.
Direct contact
Have a controls question?
Reach Eric Sullivan directly about anything on this site, a controls or automation topic, or one of his personal projects.