SCADA Operator Training Tool Applied to the Central Arizona Irrigation and Drainage District

Many irrigation districts use Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software to manage their canal systems. Whether homegrown or commercial, these programs require a significant amount of training for new operators. While some SCADA operators are hired with extensive field experience, others are hired with no field experience at all and require extended training to gain an understanding of the behavior of open-channel systems. Regardless of their experience, these operators usually receive SCADA training while managing the actual canal system and thus their training is driven by the day-to-day operation of the system. The SCADA operators receive no hands-on training for emergency situations such as hardware vandalism, large storm events, or a canal breach. Creating these emergency situations in a canal system for training purposes leads to wasting water, causing significant fluctuations in water levels in the adjoining pools, or potentially causing severe damage to the canal system. Recently, researchers at the U.S. Arid Land Agricultural Research Center created a training tool that replaces the real canal with a hydraulic simulation model without making any changes to the SCADA software. Employees at WEST Consultants, Inc. recently modified this training tool so that it works with HEC-RAS as the hydraulic simulation model. Using this system, SCADA operators can be trained to operate a canal system under a wide range of emergency situations without endangering the actual canal system or wasting water. This type of training should reduce the time required to train operators, allow the SCADA operators to route flow changes more efficiently through the system, and give operators a larger knowledge base with which to handle emergency situations. This training tool was recently applied to the Central Arizona Irrigation and Drainage District in Eloy, Arizona. Because of the flexibility and applicability of this training tool, we hope that this tool can be used in a wide range of training situations.